Stranger Things Have Happened
by Kireteiru
Summary: SemiAU. When Galatea's protege runs into an Awakened male "sensor," she was not expecting the organization to offer him a deal for the Battle of Pieta. How would the world be changed if an Awakened One helped the Ghosts? Clare x Raki, OC x OC. Complete!
1. Prologue: Ryoushi

Prologue: Ryoushi

It was an accident.

With the males, it always was an accident. Just the slightest of slips could cause an Awakening, and after the first one went, the organization began forcing the male warriors to travel in packs so they could easily eliminate anyone who Awakened unexpectedly. For a long time, the organization's plan worked; no Awakened One's spent more than an hour in the world.

Until a "sensor" escaped.

* * *

There was one coming at his back, trying to pierce the apparently unprotected flesh, but he whipped around, too fast to track, and blocked the strike with his claws, trying not to think about who he was attacking as he lashed out, severing the warrior in two before he turned right back around and continued running. His thick fur was insulating him from the extreme cold as he went higher and higher into the mountains of Alphons, but the Claymores behind him had no such protective covering, though they could use their youki to warm themselves. That warmth would only last as long as their energy did, however, and he could tell they were running out.

He wasn't the best of the sensors for nothing.

'I'm sorry, Aldaron,' the Awakened One thought as he raced higher into the range, deeper into the northern snows, 'I am so sorry.'

He had been raised in Alphons, but no human or Claymore had ever gone this far north, almost to the top of the world, and it was very clear that even the Claymores would have to give up pursuit or die in the snow –

One fell.

He stopped some distance away, sniffing the air hesitantly. Though the cold stung his sensitive nose, he detected traces of the Claymores' scents and, suppressing his youki as far down as it would go, prowled back down the mountain to where the hanyoma had stopped.

Dacien, the weakest of the group, Number 38, was on the ground, shivering violently in the cold, and the others were trying to convince him to get up, so they could return to chasing Ryoushi. The Awakened One silently hunkered down to wait. If they continued after him (as he privately suspected they would, now that Sunsaku was leading), it would be up to him to save his former comrade. None of them would be able to detect him if he kept his youki fully suppressed like he had trained himself to do for his fighting style.

But there was one thing that was bothering him as he crouched there in the snow…

'Why haven't I forgotten as all of the others did? I still know my team, but according to the reports of other warriors I know, their Awakened teammates didn't recognize them after they were rogue…'

Sunsaku was leading the remainder of the team into the mountains to finish the hunt, even though it was already over, and once he could no longer smell them, Ryoushi padded down the slope and gently nudged the shivering form with his nose. Dacien responded weakly, so the Awakened One picked him up in him jaws, careful not to injure the Claymore while simultaneously noticing that he smelled –and tasted – terrible. He looked around before starting toward a not-quite-cave hollowed out by the snow, dropping his comrade inside and carefully maneuvering his large body so that he blocked the worst of the wind, taking stock of his new appearance as he did so.

He was some bizarre hybrid between a wolf and a dragon, with a furred upper body, neck, and head, but as one moved towards his extremities, the fur became scarcer as scales began to take its place. Powerful talons tipped his fingers and toes, and he still had five of them at the end of each limb, though their positions had changed on his feet: spread out to provide more balance if he chose to ear up on two legs. Walking (or running) on four was more comfortable, and he wasn't quite sure he wanted to expose his vulnerable stomach to any foes.

There was a groan as Dacien stirred, lying curled against Ryoushi's furry chest, the Awakened One's long, prehensile tail draped over the Claymore's form to provide extra warmth, and Ryoushi glanced warily down at the warrior. Dacien was smart; he didn't take on yoma that he could not handle. But what would he do if he was the only one who could take him out…?

In the distance, another Claymore fell victim to the cold; Hankou, this time. He would be dead by the time Ryoushi could reach him even if he ran as fast as he could, so Ryoushi stayed where he was as the last two, Sunsaku and Houshito, fell onto the ice, never to rise again.

Dacien stirred, finally, and peered around, freezing when he saw the fur covering his body. "Umm… Ryoushi-san?"

"**Yes?"**

The lower-ranked number winced at his superior's distorted voice. "Why did you save me?"

"…**I don't know. I know that you're … you're not my enemy. So I won't hurt you."**

"Oh." The Claymore seemed confused. "Wait, you still remember me…?"

"**Yes."** Ryoushi got to his feet. **"Get up,"** he said, **"I'm taking you south. The others went ahead without you."**

"South?"

"**No, north. They left you behind. Gather your gear."** Ryoushi padded out into the snow over to where the Claymore had fallen and swiftly dug through the layers that had formed over the sword and pack. Dacien hesitated before pacing over and kneeling to pick up his stuff, saying, "The others are dead, aren't they."

'He always was too perceptive.' **"Yes. Aldaron by my own hand, the others by the cold. As you almost were."**

"Oh." Aldaron had always been cruel to Dacien, so he was no loss in the Claymore's eyes, but Houshito had been his friend, someone who watched his back even though he felt he didn't deserve it.

"**There is no use in you dying with them, letting yoma consume humans in your absence. Take their places; become stronger and make them proud of you."** Ryoushi twitched his tail and stood between the hanyoma and the driving wind, wondering absently what human guts tasted like, now that they were his food source.

"Sir?"

Ryoushi blinked. Dacien was ready to go, all of his gear packed and ready, and the Awakened One sighed. **"You're not going to be able to keep up with me so get on,"** he said, couching so that Dacien could climb onto his back, **"And don't call me sir."**

* * *

After almost a full week of running, the unusual duo finally reached the edge of the northern lands, and Ryoushi forced himself back into human form, despite the presence of a Claymore, who could potentially kill him. Dacien obligingly looked away as he pulled on the extra uniform that the hanyoma had before he truly got a good look at his former comrade.

He looked exactly as he had as a human: short brown hair, brown eyes, and a strong face. Ryoushi would never be able to be mistaken for anything but a warrior, but that was not necessarily a good thing. Like Priscilla in the future, he had been slated to become the Number One, but now that was out of his reach forever. No Awakened One would ever hold a Number, and Alicia did not count; she could return to her hanyoma state without losing her mind.

Dacien reluctantly looked away from his long-time and now-Awakened friend, saying, "I guess this is good bye."

"Yes. Next time we meet, it will be on a battlefield." The nonhuman held out his hand, and they shook. "I wish you luck."

And then he was gone.

* * *

Ryoushi immediately headed south, to hide amongst the incredible proliferation of yoma in that area, but the organization immediately suspected that he had escaped from his executors when Dacien returned alone and was confirmed to be unAwakened. The hanyoma told them the truth, and they dispatched a special team of hunters to pursue the Awakened One, but he was never found. They never suspected that he had settled down in a little town called Intore, several miles outside of Polina, serving as their sword smith. Because Intore was relatively large for a town period, but small for one along a main trading route, he was able to hide undetected in the city while having a large area and variety of prey to hunt.

During his early years, he was forced to hunt almost every day in neighboring towns, ranging for miles to hide his presence and hiding the bodies of those he killed in towns miles away, drawing suspicion away. As the years went on, however, he need to hunt decreased from once a day to once a week, then to once a month, and he was able to suppress his youki into virtual nonexistence; only his smell would give him away, but any Claymore that got that close would be dead.

He had done another service for his town, though; because he was there, yoma tended to avoid the area after almost thirty of them vanished under mysterious circumstances.

Ryoushi brought the hammer down on the steel that he was forging into a blade, careful not to hit the areas that he'd already struck to prevent the need for excess hits later. If there was one thing he prided himself on, it was the quality of his swords (and the fact that he had remained hidden so long). As he worked, being watched by several of Intore's children, there was a cry from the town square, causing all of the temporary residence of the town's blacksmith to look up and peer out of the former stable.

Another pained cry caused the children to go running for their mothers, but the feel of a powerful youki caused Ryoushi to abandon the half-forged sword in favor of a claymore like blade on one of the walls. His own claymore was hidden inside his house, and it would have been extremely unwise to have it on display, so he had been forced to make a "flimsy" replacement.

'A yoma?' he thought as he ran toward the town square, forced to fight the crowd attempting to escape, 'No… its youki is too strong for that. Is it like me…?'

He burst into the courtyard and beheld a bizarre, birdlike being tearing at a human corpse, and instantly the hunger struck. He fought through it, shouting, "Oi! Teme!"

The Awakened One instantly looked up and shrieked its rage at the interruption of its meal, tearing toward the blacksmith, but he dodged the strike, managing to look like he was truly struggling against the yoma despite the fact that he sliced off its left arm in one move. He tucked and rolled as the Awakened One screeched angrily, and it was but a moment more before it charged again, swiping at him with a wing. However, he spun out of the way, hacking off its head from behind. One of its claws managed to graze his arm as it fell, but that was the only injury he received.

"It's okay," he called, "The yoma's dead now."

A particularly brave merchant poked his head out of his shop and, seeing the headless corpse, said, "It doesn't look like any yoma I've ever seen."

"I know." Ryoushi frowned down at it. "I think they're breeding freaks now." Then he snorted. "Not that that's much of a change."

The merchant laughed, and other people began emerging from their homes at the sound. It wasn't long before the whole town was celebrating, but Ryoushi insisted that it was nothing, saying, "My old home had a near-constant problem with yoma because it was large and on a crossroads. I got to see a lot of claymore fighting the yoma, so I knew that all I had to do was get up behind it and hack off its head. Even yoma can't exist without a head."

Regardless of his wishes, the town threw him a party and courted him for blades more often than the traveling smiths from other towns. After about ten years staying there, Ryoushi moved on before the citizens noticed the fact that he didn't age. The next town when he lived was Rabona, the holy city, an easy place to hide in, as no claymore were permitted in the city, but still… He hunted elsewhere.

* * *

It felt sacrilegious, the Awakened One mused as he walked, hooded and cloaked, down one of the clean streets, for a monster like him to be living in the shadow of the most holy of cathedrals. It was not unusual for him to wander the city at night, especially when the beast within was feeling particularly volatile because of something that happened that day. One of the prostitutes had tried to seduce him shortly before "dinner," and now his beast wanted to take her up on the offer, but with a "change of game."

He sighed quietly, stopping his feet as they attempted to take him to her, instead heading for the city's wall. It was a simple matter to leap the twenty-foot barrier and drop down into the forest on the other side, already sprinting towards the nearest town with his youki pressed down into nonexistence, no matter how much had wanted to flare it to high heaven to announce his presence. He entered the town, Khial, just as the unsavory persons were emerging from the shadows of the alleys between buildings.

He was tempted to accept the first offer given, but his beast had other ideas, so for once, he let it guide him through the streets and alleys, moving with utter silence until he came upon a whorish female sprawled out in the shadow of a pub, unmistakably unconscious, and he knelt beside her, teeth sharpening of their own accord as he leaned over to make the first bite –

The flesh was warm and soft in his mouth, bloody, tasty, and he forced himself to chew and swallow even as his hands wrapped around the woman's throat, strangling her to prevent her from ever waking and disturbing his meal. His conscious self stepped back and let the beast take control of the feeding, still forcing it to go slow so that it didn't make noise that would draw villagers, but fast enough to where he would be able to return to the city before the sun rose.

Ryoushi finished without anyone noticing him and collected the body, dumping it in the river a short distance outside the town before washing away the blood with a bucket of water, leaving no evidence behind.

* * *

It was only a year later when the organization announced that it was going to start making female claymores because the males turned into yoma too fast, and he watched as the males were executed and the females took their places. Isley had Awakened a year or so after he had, so Ryoushi had briefly gone to visit him in the north. It had been great to catch up on old times, but they couldn't stay in the same place together; their strengths were almost equally matched, and they both had the instincts of an Alpha male. Ryoushi obligingly left the Silver King's territory after one month there, only staying long enough to warn him of Rigaldo's arrival before returning to his home in Rabona.

He was in the midst of moving to another city when he saw a claymore sprinting through the trees. She was wearing the uniform of a trainee, but Ryoushi couldn't see a trainer anywhere. 'An escapee,' he thought and ignored her until she spoke to him.

"Hey!"

He stopped, surprised that a hanyoma would address a stranger, but turned to face her just the same. "Yes? What can I do for you, miss?"

"You… why do you have a youki? You're a male. Are you a yoma?"

He froze for a moment, shocked. 'She's a sensor,' he realized, 'like me.' "You… can feel my youki?"

"Yes, but it's very small. Are you a yoma?"

"…no. Not in the sense that you think." He hesitated, then said, "What's your name?"

"Teresa," she said, stepping more clearly into view. She was unarmed, and he had his original claymore over his back, but still, he was wary of her, as any self-respecting yoma would be. When she steeped toward him, he took a step back, and she didn't attempt to advance again. "What are you, then, if you aren't exactly a yoma?"

He pulled back slightly, and she herself took a step back. It was clear that she was curious about him and wanted to know what he was, but he didn't trust her. The female claymores were so different from the males; they were more restrained, more controlled, and there was no telling how much more it took to make them Awaken. "I don't know what the term is. I was a claymore during the male era."

"An Awakened One?" She looked even more inquisitive. "What is Awakening like? Do you ever regret the fact that you're no longer human? Do you really eat guts like a yoma?"

Her multitude of questions made him laugh. "I don't remember much about my Awakening, but I do know that it was an accident, and yes, I regret it every moment. I do have to eat guts to survive, but I only eat criminals and the scum of the earth and such."

"You have more control over yourself than the Awakened Ones I've heard about." Teresa cocked her head. "What's your name?"

"Ryoushi. I'm a sensor from the 45th male generation, warrior 133."

"Oh! I've heard of you! You were the first Awakened One to escape the execution squad!" She brightened visibly before taking on a confused expression. "What's a sensor, by the way?"

"It's someone who specializes in detecting yoma aura, like you. Any other Claymore wouldn't be able to sense me; they could only tell if they got close enough to smell me or saw me feeding."

"Oh." She appeared to think for a moment. "Could you teach me how to sense more effectively?"

"Why would I do that?" he asked, continuing on his way, "You could just as easily hunt me down and kill me when you become a full fledged warrior."

"I wouldn't do that!" She jogged after him but kept a fair distance between them, showing that she was at least subconsciously thinking about his comfort. "I'd owe you for teaching me; it wouldn't be fair to use what you taught me against you."

"Life's not fair, Teresa."

"Then why haven't you killed me?"

Ryoushi stopped in his tracks.

"I know that you exist, and what you feel like. Even without your teachings, I could lead other, stronger Claymore to you."

He turned back to look at her. She was standing firmly in the road, arms crossed over her chest, feet planted in the packed dirt; the very image of stubborn determination. The wind plucked at her wavy hair, pulled back into a ponytail as it was, and it was obvious that she was not just going to let him go.

"…Fine."

"Yes!" She sprang after him and led him to a small clearing about three miles off the road, where she said, "This is where I come when I'm escaping from the trainers. Did you ever run away?"

"No." He peered around at the clearing, slipping off his hood. "I was too busy trying to learn how to kill yoma. I lost my whole family to them."

"Really?" At his nod, Teresa said, "So did I. That seems to be a common story amongst the claymores."

He pulled off his cloak and pack, setting them against a tree near the entrance of the clearing, before rustling through his bag and pulling out a claymore replica. "Here," he said, tossing it to her, "If I'm going to teach you, I need to know your strengths and weaknesses first."

* * *

Teresa completed his jury-rigged training in the "Art of Sensing" a week later, shortly before the organization was able to track her down. Ryoushi made himself scarce when that happened, scattering to Intore again. Everyone who had known him when he first lived there was long dead, so he judged it safe to return. There was a brief, almost microscopic scuffle with the resident yoma before he killed it and dumped its body in the river (that seemed to be a trend with him. After all, the water washed away all scent), and he settled down, once again, as a blacksmith specializing in swords.

He spent three years working there before Teresa showed back up again, this time with a little girl at her side. He sensed her outside the town and was already preparing to flee when a yoma from a town across the river charged in and took a hostage from the villagers: a boy, barely more than six years old.

Ryoushi lunged for his claymore and prepared to sprint towards and attack the yoma, but Teresa beat him to the punch. He sensed her whip off the cloak that she was wearing to hide her appearance, so he reluctantly placed his claymore back in its box and went out to the place where the fight was about to end. The yoma dropped the boy and charged the Claymore, but Teresa hacked it in half before it could get a strike in, the separate halves falling to the ground. She sheathed her blade, and he sensed her interacting with the villagers, but at the same time, four youki appeared at the very edge of his range, three normal and one so low that it was almost undetectable.

After a bit, he sensed her leaving the building where she was now staying and beginning to "wander" the town, meandering in his general direction, giving him ample time to escape if he chose. However, he couldn't sense any malicious intent from her, so he permitted her to arrive at his shop.

"You seem to be doing rather well," she commented as she entered the building, looking around at the variety of blades hanging from and propped up against the walls.

"I try to make up for the lives I take," he said, wiping off his hands with a rag, "That yoma came from the town across the river."

"You didn't clear it out?"

"It popped up earlier today. I was planning on taking care of it after nightfall." He smiled bitterly. "Less likelihood of being seen or recognized." He set the rag down on his workbench and gestured for her to follow. Ryoushi led her into the residential section of his dwelling, offering her a seat at his table.

"I'm sure you can sense my execution squad, even if I can't," she said without ceremony. Both of them valued expediency. "I want you to take care of the girl who's traveling with me if I don't make it."

Ryoushi choked on the cup of water that he had poured for himself, staring at Teresa as if she had told him that she was planning on taking over the world. "What? You do realize that you're asking an Awakened One to look after its food source, right?"

"I trust you not to kill her."

The nonhuman sighed. "And there's nothing I can say to convince you otherwise." He stood up and walked over to a window that overlooked the town. "There are four of them, three normal, one so low that you might not be able to detect it. Possible the top three after you and a powerful trainee."

"Irene, Noel, and Sophia. And the trainee whose aura is almost nonexistent?" Teresa appeared to think for a moment. "I remember something about one, but her name escapes me."

"They must intent to use her so that you can't detect her."

"Hmm." Teresa stood and turned away.

"You could leave the girl with me and run. Come back and get her when it's safe," Ryoushi suggested.

The claymore shook her head. "She wouldn't stay. I'll have to fight them." She looked up at him. "Could you be there? For morale support?"

He sighed. "If that's what you want. I doubt they'll notice me."

She nodded. "Thank you. It means a lot."

"Despite the fact that we're supposed to be enemies?"

"Even more so because of that."

She returned to the hotel, and he followed at a distance, always within sight. It was scant minutes after she returned that the execution squad entered the village, and Ryoushi kept close to the building as they arrived. It was not long before Teresa came leaping out the window, and a claymore calling herself Priscilla stepped forward, saying that the hunters had come for Teresa's head. The number one ordered Clare away and was visibly relieved when he stepped up next to the child. They could do nothing but watch as Teresa fought all of the other hanyoma, and the fight was going well –

Until Priscilla released her youki.

Ryoushi felt it as Teresa died and silently walked out to the place where her body was. Clare was crying and clutching the dead woman's head to her body, but she looked up when he approached, still sobbing. He knelt next to her and cocked his head. "Teresa asked me to take care of you in the event that she didn't make it. Come back to my house, and we can decide what to do from there. And yes, if you feel the need, you may keep her head with you. We can bury her body tonight."

Clare sniffled and took his hand, still holding Teresa's head tight, and he led her back into the city without being seen and made her a cup of warm tea once they returned to his house. He sat down across from her and waited for her to speak.

"…are you…"

Ryoushi looked up from his tea to find her peering at him. "Pardon?"

"…What are you?"

His eyebrows shot up. 'She is as perceptive as Teresa,' he thought, 'Even without the ability to sense youki, she instinctively recognizes me as something alien. Perhaps I should tell her something like the truth.' Aloud, he said, "A long time ago, I was a male claymore. I made friends with Teresa about three years ago, while she was still training, which is why she brought you here. She wanted me to look after you until it was safe for her to come back and get you." He relaxed his expression and cocked his head. "Now that she is… no longer with us, I believe that you should be permitted to decide your fate. What would you like to do?"

Clare looked down at Teresa's head for a long moment, examining her closed eyes, her silken hair, her flawless face. It was almost fifteen minutes before she spoke again. "Help me find one of the men in black."


	2. Chapter 1: First Sight

Chapter 1: First Sight

"Hurry up," the trainer yelled at the half-yoma girls in the room as they scrambled to get ready, gathering what little they could call their own, "We're trying something new with you lot, so one of the present high-level Numbers is going to choose one or several of you to learn their technique. Number Eight, Flora, is first. Line up!"

All of the young girls did as they were told, but they took varying amounts of time to do so. The youngest of the trainees, Kinatia, was the last one to get in line, as she was still growing and thus was shorter than all the others. As such, she was often pushed out of the way by the taller women, but it was nothing that hadn't happened before. She merely sighed and paced to the end of the line, standing at attention just as Flora entered the room.

Number Eight looked them all over, pacing up and down the line several times, and picked a few to come over for further testing while Eva entered the room and did the same. Number Six, Miria, was away on a mission, hunting an Awakened Being, but Raphaela was there. She picked out a handful of trainees, and Ophelia chose almost half of the remainder, leading the wary teenagers out of the building. She shivered as the number four left; there was something very… not right about her, something that made her want to turn and run whenever she saw the "Blood-Soaked Warrior."

Then Galatea, Number Three, entered the room. She gave the remaining line one glance and pointed at Kinatia. "You. Come here."

The youngest did as she was told and walked over, looking up at the elder warrior as she did so. "Hmm." Galatea looked her over, examined her youki, and then said, "You'll do." Turning to the trainer, "I'll take her."

He simply shrugged, not claiming to fathom the minds of the hanyoma, regardless of whether he had trained them or not. They all had their own prerogatives. "Whatever."

"Come with me," Galatea told her, "Let's get you some proper armor, and then I can start training you."

Kinatia nodded and followed the much taller woman out of the room, heading for the armory. "Do you have a symbol?" Galatea asked her as the pair headed toward the building, "Ever thought about one that you wanted?"

"…not really. I – never really thought about it before." Kinatia trailed sedately after the elder, entering the wooden building after her and peering around in the semidarkness. Unmarked claymore swords lined the walls, both hanging on it and leaned against it. The typical leather uniforms of the warriors were all stacked against the far wall, and there was a haphazard pile of metal by another door. Galatea rustled around briefly in the pile of steel before pulling out shoulder plates, a waist pouch, and some boots and gauntlets.

"Here," she said, handing them to her trainee, "Put these on. They'll be a little big, but it's better than nothing."

Kinatia obligingly dressed in the armor and shifted slightly under the unfamiliar weight, letting the number appraise her.

"Okay," she said finally, "Let's begin." She walked out of the structure towards a deserted training ground, one that was supposedly haunted by the spirits of the warriors who never made rank. It unnerved Kinatia, but she refused to show it, forcing her youki to calm. Galatea noticed. "Good."

"Pardon?"

"You are capable of keeping yourself and your youki calm, even when you are unsettled," she explained, "It only proves that I have made the right choice. Now, to understand my technique, you must first experience it. Draw your blade and attack me."

Kinatia hesitated, then remembered that this was _Galatea_, the organization's Number Three. If she was not able to block or dodge or change the strike of a trainee, then she did not deserve her number. The claymore felt light in her hands, despite the fact that it easily weighed fifty to seventy-five pounds, and she decided to go for a straight forward attack rather than attempt something stealthy.

The younger lunged forward, going for a decapitation, but at the last second, she felt Galatea's youki cause her own to send more energy than needed into the motion, thus resulting in her blade sailing over the number's head; a clean miss. Kinatia leapt back warily, unsettled at the way it had felt to no longer be in control of her own body. Even remembering the sensation sent shivers down her spine, but she suppressed the urge.

Galatea smiled with the intent to throw her further off- balance, but Kinatia recognized the attempt as such and refused to fall for it. "Good," Galatea said again, "You know better than to let appearances deceive."

"I try," she said, then lunged again, intent upon memorizing what it was that Galatea did to cause the increase in flow in hopes that she would be able to better understand it and possibly counter it. Galatea recognized the intent on her face and obliged her, manipulating her strike so that it whistled harmlessly past. Kinatia memorized the feeling and began working on a way to counter it, striking again. When Galatea manipulated the strike again, she whipped the attack around to come at the number from a different direction. This time Galatea blocked with her sword and sent her flying back. She managed to land on her feet just as the other claymore said, "Good. Ingenuity, and so quickly, too."

Kinatia blinked before realizing that Galatea had wanted to see how fast she could come up with a contingency plan. "Is this entire thing a test of my abilities?"

"Most of it," Galatea admitted, "It's also to teach you the basics for what it feels like to be manipulated, and how to do it. Try it on me."

"Okay." She closed her eyes for the moment to help her focus and sensed the yoma energy that Galatea was radiating, forcing herself to focus onto the smallest threads of energy through her nervous system, but even then, the most she was able to do was make the other's fingers twitch only slightly, just enough to be visible.

"It's better than what I was able to do when I first tried," the other warrior assured her, "It means that you might be better at this than I am, once your training is complete."

* * *

The heads of the organization cleared her to go on missions with the higher-ranking warrior the very next day, as Galatea claimed that there was a marked difference between manipulating a yoma and another claymore. As they walked to the town where their first task was, they took turns telling one another about themselves and their lives before they became hanyoma and found that they had lived in neighboring villages, could have even known each other. Kinatia observed as Galatea fought using her manipulating technique, and barely two weeks passed before she was able to sense youki with incredible accuracy. Manipulating it, however, was another matter. Galatea had her doing exercises that stretched the edges of her control and strength, and what would take any other Claymore six months to master took her several weeks. Even so, it was a long and difficult road that pushed her to her limits and beyond, strengthening her for the even-harder road beyond.

Eventually, a mission came up, and it was one that Galatea thought her trainee could handle, so Kinatia was sent off to kill what was supposedly an unusually weak yoma in the town of Partena, about six miles from Intore. She walked there to ensure that she would not be detected, but upon arriving at the town, there was no yoma in range. The yoma's unusual scent niggled at her memory – she had smelled something like it before – and it was only in the shadier parts of the town, despite the fact that yoma typically appeared as upright citizens to avoid suspicion. She followed the scent through the town – and out to the road to Intore.

Very, _very_ faintly, she detected an almost microscopic youki within the distant town.

'Hmm. A yoma living in one town and hunting in another? This one's smart.'

"Miss? What is it?" One of the village elders had come up behind her upon seeing her curiosity about the other immense gathering of buildings atop a nearby hill.

"The yoma isn't here anymore," Kinatia said, appearing to almost crane her neck in an attempt to get a better look at the town, "It's in Intore."

The elder was visibly taken aback. "Intore? But that would mean…"

"It's living there and hunting here. It's smart, I'll give it that much, but it's weak, too." The still-unranked claymore began walking toward the other village. "A stranger dressed in black will come to collect the fee."

"But if they're the village with it living there…"

"The village that puts forward the request is the one that pays." Kinatia strode swiftly away from Partena along the road to Intore, completely aware of the way the youki was moving about the village, and she suppressed her own youki as far down as it would go, hoping to conceal her approach.

Impossibly, it sensed her as she reached the midway point and stealthily began making its exit, following back roads and alleys out of the village and into the forest on the other side, forcing her to push all of her youki into her legs as she struggled to keep up with it without entering the village. There were numerous short cuts that she was able to take, and finally –

There was a claymore next to her face. She hadn't even sensed his sudden change from before to behind her, but she automatically reached for his youki and twisted the blade away from her head, leaping forward and spinning to face the yoma. And then it hit her, as she leveled her own blade at him, ignoring the beauty of their surroundings.

Yoma didn't carry claymore swords unless they picked one up at random, and no Claymore had been killed in the area without blade recovery in almost ten years. _This was an Awakened One._

'Oh, God,' she thought, staring into his intense brown eyes, 'There is no way I'm getting out of this alive.'

"Leave me alone," he hissed at her and then sprinted further into the woods, away from her, but instinctively she raced after him, determined not to let such a dangerous creature escape. He seemed to be making an effort to tear up the trail, to make things as difficult as possible for her, and she accepted the fact that he was smart to do that, to try and divert her path long enough so that he could escape.

And it would have worked, had she not been able to trip him up using the skill that Galatea taught her. She alighted gracefully next to him and crouched, resting the edge of her blade along the back of his neck. "Why did you ask to be left alone?" she wanted to know.

"Because I've done nothing wrong." He glared at her as best he could with one eye, the other being pressed into the dirt. "I cannot help what my food source is-"

It was then that Galatea arrived, having come in pursuit of her protégé once she began sprinting after the Awakened One, and both pursued and pursuer looked up at the number three, the yoma baring its teeth in coiled fury and the hanyoma blinking in shock at her trainer's swiftness.

"What are you waiting for?" Galatea yelled, "Kill it!"

"I think not."

The voice came from the trees to their left (Galatea's right), and a man in black emerged from around a tree trunk, touching his hand to his hat in a mockery of respect as he appeared from the greater darkness caused by the setting sun. "It's been a long time," he said as the gloom receded from his face, "Ryoushi."

The Awakened One hissed through swiftly lengthening fangs as his control escaped him, fur bursting through his skin, while elsewhere the thin covering of flesh morphed smoothly to scales. His jaws lengthened into the maw of the wolf-dragon that his Awakened form took, nails thickening and sharpening into claws, tail exploding from his tailbone. His posture and center of gravity changed as his limbs did until he was forced to drop to all fours to complete the transformation, Kinatia having recoiled and let him up the moment the involuntary shift began.

"**Rubel,"** Ryoushi growled dangerously, rising and regaining his balance after swaying slightly, **"How in the seven hells are you still alive?"**

"I could say the same about you, but I know better. You were – are – still the best of the sensor-class Claymore. Teresa of the Faint Smile was testament enough to that." Rubel chuckled.

"**Don't dodge the question, teme,"** the nonhuman snarled, taking a threatening step forward, and the Claymore automatically moved between him and the handler, their blades drawn and leveled. Now they both could clearly sense the full scope of his youki, despite the fact that it was as low as it would go in his Awakened form, and there was no chance that they would survive if they attacked him then. That only left one option: defense.

He recoiled from the sharp edged steel and paced the far side of the clearing, slit-pupiled golden eyes continuously locked on the figure of the man.

"How I am alive doesn't matter right now," Rubel said, "Ordinarily, I would have gotten Raphaela to track you down, but she would have executed you on the spot." He tsked. "Not what the organization wants."

"**Oh? And just what do those conniving bastards want with a monster like me?"** Ryoushi sat down on his haunches and stared determinedly at the Claymore handler.

"The Council has decided that we would like you to go to the northern land of Alphonse, to fight Isley. Number Seven and some of her trainees perished there a few weeks ago, and we have received reports of numerous Awakened Ones gathered there."

"**I have no quarrel with the Silver King,"** the Awakened One said firmly, beginning to turn away from the enemy trio, **"and I have no desire to be part of a genocide of my own kind, however twisted and perverted they may be compared to myself."**

"We are willing to offer permanent amnesty."

Galatea whipped her head around to stare at Rubel, her claymore almost sliding from her now nerveless grasp, while Kinatia simply looked confused. She had never heard the term before that instant and did not understand the meaning.

"**Permanent amnesty?"** Ryoushi said, lifting a clawed hand to scratch at his chin, **"Hmm. Tempting."**

"Amnesty?" Kinatia whispered to Galatea, asking for clarification.

"**It means that they'll let me live no matter what. I'll have permission to hunt where I want, when I want."** Ryoushi paced a little closer, slowly forcing himself back into his human form, looking utterly ominous mid-change.

"Within reason, of course," Rubel finished, watching the Awakened One's reaction from behind his black sunglasses.

"**Of cou**rse." Ryoushi rolled his eyes as they faded back to brown. He managed to find his cloak intact at the base of a tree and pulled it on to preserve modesty, returning his gaze to the man in black. "What would I be covered for, should I accept?"

"One criminal meal every two weeks, delivered to your residence," Rubel said clearly, smirking, "And it will be discreet, of course. One wouldn't want an eighty-nine-year-old master sword smith to lose business over a little something like that."

"All of that for Isley's head on a platter?"

"Kinatia will be traveling with you to Alphonse, to make sure you hold up your end of the bargain before they hold up theirs." Rubel smirked when Ryoushi growled. All color drained from the girl's face even as Galatea began protesting that Kinatia's training was not complete, to which Rubel replied, "It is complete enough for the Council, at the moment. When she returns, you will resume."

"And if she doesn't? Isley is not something you can just throw someone up against!"

"She will be there as a witness, not as a fighter. Ryoushi will do her share."

The Awakened One snorted. "Presumptuous bastard. I haven't even said if I'm going."

"Ah, but you will. I know you, Ryoushi. You won't pass up an opportunity like this, not knowing when – if – it will come around again."

* * *

"Jackass," Ryoushi muttered under his breath as he nearly stormed down the road to the northern lands, Kinatia trailing some distance behind him. She had come to his house to help him board everything up and gather his gear for the journey north, and now they were on their way to Pieta, the first city in Alphonse. "Barges in like he owns the place and interrupts the fucking life I managed to rebuild from scratch after he royally screwed the first one over. Lucky I didn't decide to lop off that obnoxious head of his."

"I wouldn't have stopped you if you tried," Kinatia volunteered from behind him; "I don't like him either." His bloodthirsty youki was unsettling her, especially now that she knew it would take them almost three weeks to reach even the border of Alphonse from his home in the southern land of Musha, and a further four days to reach Pieta. That meant that he would have to hunt along the way, and she would have to watch him do it. Galatea was not around to protect her anymore; she was on her own, escorting an Awakened One to a human city so it could slaughter its own kind.

"Nice to know that some things are universal," he called irritably to her, "I don't know if Teresa knew him, but I don't think she would have like him either."

"Teresa?" Kinatia jogged briefly to get a little closer to him as they walked. "Rubel mentioned her before. Teresa of the Faint Smile?"

"Yeah. I trained her about five years ago now. She was an abnormally gifted sensor-class, especially for an unAwakened claymore."

"What happened to her?" she asked, looking up at his face. He was hiding beneath his cloak to "prevent sunburn;" something he learned humans got when they were out in the sun too much, so he always wore it when he was traveling long distances. It was more to disguise his face than protect his skin, so guards who say him feeding wouldn't be able to identify him.

"She was marked for death," he said slowly, "by the organization for killing a bandit troop. The killing humans rule even then was zero-tolerance, and after she escaped the first execution squad, Numbers Two through Five were gathered to kill her: Priscilla, who had just been certified, 'Quicksword' Irene, 'Storm' Noel, and 'Muscular' Sophia. Teresa… came to visit me, to ask if I would look after a girl who had been traveling with her, so that she would be safe in case Teresa had to run."

He paused, gathering his thoughts. He'd never imagined that he would have to tell this story to anyone, so he had never bothered trying to compose it in words. "I told her yes. I followed her back to her lodgings at her request; I think she intended to introduce me to the girl, but I'll never know. A few minutes later, the second execution squad appeared, and Irene and Noel went inside. The next thing I know, Teresa had jumped out of the window with the girl under her arm and was talking to Priscilla, who was supposed to attack her from behind. I don't know why she didn't; I wasn't close enough to hear what she said. Teresa thrashed them, and though she looked like she was going to do it, she didn't kill Priscilla. She left the town, but Priscilla and then the other executioners followed. As did I." He sighed. "Teresa was much stronger than Priscilla, who had released too much youki and was on the verge of Awakening. She asked Teresa to kill her, and she was about to do so, but Priscilla's human mind lost control and killed her before she was able to take her head."

"And the girl? The one Teresa asked you to look after?"

"I let her choose her fate after Teresa passed on. She went to the organization and, so far as I know, had Teresa's flesh and blood put inside of her."

"But wouldn't that mean that she's-"

"One quarter yoma? Yes. But, that was what she wanted." He sighed. "I haven't heard from her since, and I don't even know her name."

"You never asked?"

"I never got the opportunity to. She wanted to leave right away to find one of the 'men in black.'" He paused and thought for a moment. "'Men in Black.' Sounds like a bad futuristic something-or-other."

"Huh?"

"…never mind. Chock it up to the mad mutterings of a monster." His shoulders slumped as he continued down the road, his claymore babysitter having stopped at his words.

Kinatia cocked her head and was silent for a long moment, thinking. This Awakened One… didn't act like an Awakened One should. Like she had been taught they should. He seemed… almost human, unusual food source aside. He was complete as he was, not like Riful of the West, whom she had sensed from a distance when Galatea went to retrieve Number Forty-Seven, or Riful's "boyfriend," Dauf. It was as if… his Awakening had made him more of a person than he had ever been. He still was conscious of right and wrong, hunted only the "unsavory types," and never harmed innocent humans, and that was more than _any_ yoma – Awakened One or ordinary – could claim.

"I don't think you're a monster."

Ryoushi halted some twenty meters in front and simply stared at the mountain range miles away, as if her words would come echoing back off of their faces so he could hear them again. He turned to look at her and said, "…What?"

"I don't think you're a monster," Kinatia repeated, continuing walking as if what she had just said was not an Earth-shatteringly important statement, "I might not approve of what you have to do to survive, but that does not make you a monster. Losing yourself in it like Riful or this Priscilla, would. But you…" She came to a stop before him, looking up into his face. Silver bored into brown. "…you are different from them. You are controlled, restrained. You have a clear sense of good and evil. You don't kill innocents, only those who have sinned against their own race. So you are not a monster."

And then she continued on her way.

After a beat or two, Ryoushi followed.


	3. Chapter 2: Pieta's Beginning

Chapter 2: Pieta's Beginning

"Son of a bitch!"

"What? What is it?"

"This shit is _COLD!_"

"It's snow, 'Tia, frozen water. Of course it's going to be cold." Ryoushi chuckled as he continued walking down one of the precious few paved roads in Alphonse, his Claymore almost-but-not-quite friend jumping around behind him as she shook off the snow that had fallen on her when she accidentally whacked a tree with her sword. "Be glad that we've almost reached the tree line. Soon it'll only be the falling snow that you'll have to deal with," he called to her over his shoulder, "but as it's late spring, I doubt we'll be getting any heavy storms."

"Ack! How do you know so much about this place?" Kinatia asked as she darted up next to him, arms wrapped around herself in an attempt to stop the shivering that was setting in.

"Pieta born and raised." He shot a glance at her when her teeth started to chatter, the wind speed increasing as they left the cover of the evergreens and stepped out into the open air. "Release some of your youki; it'll drive off the cold."

She blinked but did as he suggested, and was shocked to find that her youki warmed her body almost instantly, bringing a healthy pink flesh back to her limbs and face. "…Thank you."

"Not a problem." The pair moved to avoid an abnormally large snow drift on the road, forcing them to temporarily leave the paving stones, and Kinatia was startled when he began sending pulses of youki down into the ice where he was about to walk before actually taking a step.

"…what _are_ you doing?"

"Sometimes," he said, taking another wary step, "there are bubbles of air that get trapped in the snow. One can never tell how much the … top … can take before it collapses." He stopped and seemed to "ping" the ground in front of him before carefully walking around the spot. "Many a traveler has fallen to their death because of the deceptive appearance of the surface."

"But how are you able to sense the bubbles?"

"Youki travels at different paces through different things. If you think of it as a hanyoma, youki can 'run' through air, 'jog' through water, and 'walk' through ice. And I can sense the changes in speed." He warily pinged the ground in front of him.

"Then I'll follow you." She immediately fell in behind him, warily trailing in his footsteps exactly as they traveled across the ice around the snow drift, and Ryoushi briefly shot a glance at the pile.

It was unusually large for a snow drift; normally the wind would have reduced it to a more appropriate size unless… something big was under it. That made him pause, and just as he did so, an immense youki from under the snow blew the whole pile sky high. Instinctively, he grabbed Kinatia around the waist and leapt away just as a large clawed hand slammed down right where they'd been standing. The ice cracked and fell away into a deep chasm below, ice spikes stretching skyward t the very bottom.

The claymore clutched herself tighter to him, hyperventilating at the sudden attack and dropping-away of the ground below, and Ryoushi gave her a reassuring squeeze before prying her off his body. "Help where you can," he told her, "but don't fight. I don't need you getting killed and losing me my contract."

She simply nodded, her face very white. She had never been so close to an Awakened One before, or at least one that was really trying to kill her.

Ryoushi, whose hood was still up, drew his blade and pointed it at the Awakened One, waiting for the inevitable second attack. The being was not one that he recognized, a bizarre horse-creature not unlike Isley's form, but at the same time the two were completely different. This one had almost encumbering hands, and it was obvious that his huge claws were his primary weapon against attackers.

"Use your hands to wank a lot, do you?" the more powerful of the two mocked as the weaker attacked, and he effortlessly blocked the strike before smoothly hacking of the immense appendage at the wrist, purple blood staring the snow a brilliant violet. The other screeched in rage and tried to slap him away, but he took that opportunity to chop up the remaining hand and sprint up the outstretched limb, channeling a small amount of youki into his arms to ensure a clean cut through the armored neck.

Kinatia watched, jaw on the ground, as he took down the other in no time at all, moving with the kind of smooth, effortless grace that it took royalty years to master. Galatea had taught her how to analyze an opponent's style in order to gauge their strength and the effectiveness of her skill against them, and she could see that there were no wasted movements in his attacks or strides. The fact that Galatea's skill had worked on him was pure fluke; he had not been anticipating the manipulation. That was the only reason she had succeeded.

She was _so_ out of her depth.

"You okay?"

The claymore looked up at him, startled that he had gotten so close without her knowledge. "How did you do that?" she demanded, pushing herself to her feet and brushing off the snow that had landed on her. "I thought only single digits could kill Awakened Ones that fast."

Ryoushi raised an eyebrow. "I was Number Two when I was with the organization. Isley and I were constantly switching who was which Number, though. I Awakened about a year before he did, so he became Number One, because Number Three, Roulden, was nowhere near his level of strength."

"Did you ever meet him?" Kinatia asked. At his confused look, she said, "Anything that would help us defeat him would help."

Ryoushi laughed. "Kinatia, Isley is not going to personally come to the Battle of Pieta. Even before he Awakened, he was not that kind of person. His objective is going to be to head south unimpeded, and the organization's actions are only helping him with that."

"…but why head south? If his territory is in the north?"

"Luciela of the South. He wants her territory for reasons unknown to me, but I suspect that it has something to do with Priscilla."

"Priscilla? The Awakened One that killed Bishou no Teresa?"

"Yes. She went north after her Awakening, and apparently Isley subdued her and made her his mate. It was only after that that he began to try to push south." He snorted softly.

"Nani?"

"… it is my personal belief that the whole 'subdued and made a mate' thing is a load of bullshit." He checked her over briefly before they walked back over to the road and continued following it. "I was there when Priscilla Awakened; there is no way in _hell_ that Isley is stronger than her. But as to what the truth is… that's anyone's guess."

The sensors' attention was caught by a large gathering of youki at the edge of their sense, and Kinatia said, "That must be Pieta. The youki don't feel like Awakened Ones."

"Correct. Isley's force is very large and stationed much further north than this; it would take them a lot longer to reach the city."

She turned to stare at him. "You can sense them?"

"Just barely. I think it's actually a scouting troop that I'm picking up, but the army itself shouldn't be far behind them." He cocked his head and closed his eyes as he walked, enabling him to better focus on the distant youki. "Yes, there are only three of them. They have some miles to go before they even come into sight of Pieta."

"Your range must be incredible."

"Only a hundred miles."

Once again, her jaw hit the ground, and she stood stock still in the middle of the road, staring at him as he walked on ahead for a feet meters before stopping and turning to look at her.

"…What?"

"On a good day, I get fifty miles, max. And that's on a _really_ good day," she growled at him, "and I'd never thought I would be saying this, but I am officially jealous of you."

"The skill isn't worth the price I – and others – have paid for it," he grunted, resuming walking as she picked up her pace a little to retake her place at his right, "No amount of skill is worth the lives that mine has cost."

"I'll agree with you there," Kinatia said, "But your range is absolutely incredible."

"If I didn't have to keep my youki suppressed to prevent the claymore from thinking they were about to be attacked, it would be longer. In my Awakened form, it's around… three hundred, I think. Give or take a few miles."

"I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you."

"What?"

"Augh! I would give just about anything to have that kind of skill."

"'Just about?'"

"Not my humanity. I would not be willing to give that up for anything." She lifted her hands up and threaded her fingers together behind her head. "Nothing would be worth it."

"Not even your family?"

She turned her gaze back to him, silently asking.

"The story amongst the half-human, half-yoma is almost universal: family slain by a yoma disguised as one of them, claymore steps in just in time, sole survivor turned into a hanyoma." He looked up into the eternal gray clouds overhead, absently picking out random shapes in their swirling, shifting depths. "Would you be willing to Awaken if it meant seeing your family again?"

"…No. Not if it meant I would kill them because of the …changes."

"A wise choice."

The claymore within Pieta were disbursing into their teams as the First Town of Alphonse came into view, but they sensed one youki heading off into the snow, eventually followed by several others, one of which caused Ryoushi to stop dead in his tracks.

"Ryoushi-san? Is something wrong?"

"…no. It's nothing." He swallowed thickly. "I think the leader – Miria, was it? – went with that group headed out of the town." His feet were already carrying him off the path over the safest route to the head of operations, and Kinatia fell in behind him once again. It wasn't long until they reached the cave where the group was gathered, and they knew they had the right place; there was a fire flickering within the stone opening, casting a flickering orange glow over the landscape around the mouth. "I should probably stay out here until you've explained everything to them."

"Right." Kinatia scaled the slope to the mouth and briefly hesitated outside before entering the cave.

* * *

"… chances of success are zero."

The unranked claymore paused just inside the cave, still out of sight, but she felt what appeared to be the weakest of the youki react to her almost-nonexistent presence, so she continued forward into the cavern proper.

"Clare, another one followed you!"

"I cry your pardon, Miria-sama, for barging in on you and your friends like this, but I am here to deliver this to you, from Rimuto-sama." Kinatia reached into the small pack at her waist, in clear view of the others, and pulled out a perfectly normal and nondescript envelope, still sealed. She held it out and stepped back after Miria took it.

"Thank you, um…"

"Kinatia. My name is Kinatia."

"Your rank?"

"I don't have one. Not yet, at least. I was training under Galatea-sama when I was sent here to deliver that message."

Miria nodded slightly and unsealed the envelope, taking out a single sheet of paper and reading it silently. 'To Number Six, Miria: If you are reading this message, then you are to know that the messenger bearing this letter and the one traveling with her have come to assist you in your mission against Isley. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE THEY TO BE HARMED BY A HALF-YOMA WARRIOR. Rimuto.'

"Short, sweet, and to the point as ever," she said under her breath, before raising her voice with the intent to be heard, "Who is the one traveling with you?"

Kinatia glanced back out of the cave mouth and flicked her youki in a clear summons, and after a few moments, a figure appeared through the falling snow, clad from head to toe in black. Its face was obscured by its hood, and only Clare could sense the most miniscule of youkis coming from their other guest. "Who are you?" Miria asked.

"I am Ryoushi," the man said, pushing back his hood, "Former Number Two of the organization."

Instantly, almost every hand was reaching for their blade. "_An Awakened One_? The organization sent an _Awakened One_ to help us? What are they thinking?" Helen cried, grasping the hilt of her blade with both hands as she leveled it at the male.

Clare and Deneve were silent, but both had also drawn their blades and were holding them at the ready, prepared to attack. Jean, Miria, and Kinatia were the ones who had not pulled their weapons on him; Jean was still sitting calmly next to the spot where Clare had been, Miria was still holding the letter and apparently examining the Awakened One with interested silver eyes, and Kinatia still stood at "parade rest" next to the nonhuman. "Helen, Clare, Deneve, put away your swords," Miria said finally, "It appears that there is more to this situation that meets the eye. Besides," she added, waving the letter, "they have ordered us not to hurt either of them."

"WHAT?"

Deneve was the first to resume her original position, but she watched the man with wary eyes as she sat back down next to Miria. Clare sat back down but did not sheathe her blade, and finally Helen sat back to hear what the intruders had to say. However, the ¼ yoma felt that she knew this man somehow, from what seemed like a long time ago.

"…_asked me to take care of you…"_

'Hmm.'

"Why are you here?" Miria asked him as he and his – for lack of a better term – "handler" pulled up rocks to sit down on, "You no longer have ties to the organization, nothing they could use to coerce you into coming here."

"They offered me a deal. In exchange for fighting against Isley – and winning – I get permanent amnesty. No claymore will ever be assigned to hunt me, and they will provide food for me once every two weeks for the rest of my life."

Helen looked disgusted, and even Jean made a face. Clare was as impassive as ever, still trying to figure out where she had seen him before, and Miria laced her fingers together beneath her chin. "I almost don't believe that you're an Awakened One," she said finally, "Your youki is so low that it's almost undetectable, which makes you seem very weak."

He gave them a slightly sinister smile. "I was the best sensor of my time, so I know how to keep my youki almost invisible. I did teach Teresa of the Faint Smile, after all."

"You!" Clare said abruptly, the voice suddenly clicking in her mind, "You were the one who said that Teresa asked you to take care of me!"

"And so she did." He distinctly looked her over. "You appear to be doing remarkably well, all things considered."

"I'm Clare."

"It's nice to finally meet you again, Clare." He smiled amiably at her before turning his attention to Miria. "But I couldn't help but overhear. You said that the chances of success for this mission are zero?"

"Yes," Miria said finally, "Even with your invaluable help, success is still zero. Or, at least, absolute success is zero. It is possible that we could eliminate most of the Awakened Beings here, provided Isley does not show –"

"If he does, I'll be very surprised."

"-but we could not kill them all," Miria continued, filing his small statement away for use later, "A few might live, but most of us will not."

"Geez, how are the others going to take this…?"

Ryoushi abruptly twitched his head back toward the city, gazed unfocused. "The scout party is within sight of Pieta. They have a youki manipulator with them."

"Dammit!" Instantly, all of the Claymore who had taken off their gear were scrambling to get it back on as the Awakened sensor padded out to the lip of the cave and stood on it, 'listening.'

"What are they doing?" Clare asked as she stepped up next to him, gazing out over the snow-covered landscape. "Can you tell? My range doesn't go that far."

"Just talking right now – wait. One of them is reverting to his Awakened form. He's preparing to attack the city."

"Shit!"

* * *

The group arrived just as strange blade-cables pierced some of the buildings. "Here it comes," Ryoushi whispered, just as the attacker used the cables to tug himself forward into the town, , landing in the midst of a crowd of terrified citizens, who were shocked to see some kind of monster appear in their midst.

"**How do you do, people of Pieta!" **The Awakened One whipped its blades out of the buildings and sliced through no less than seven people around it with their sharp edges. **"And now, goodbye."**

"A monster!" one of the citizens cried, just before he lashed out with his blades, piercing many of the people through their backs. He snatched up a young girl and lifted her high overhead. **"Yes… A bite to eat, for starters."**

Right before Miria cut the cable in two and grabbed the girl, alighting some distance away, using her body to shield the girl from further attack. "Everyone!" she yelled, "Get in battle formation!"

Kinatia materialized at her side as the rest of the claymores thundered up. "Where do you want us?" she whispered, too low for the others to hear.

"Hang back unless someone is about to die," she muttered in reply, and the younger nodded before leaping back to where Ryoushi was waiting to receive orders, just as Isley's Awakened scout said, **"My, my… what a spectacle. It's not often I'm surrounded by women."**

"Team Miria will hold down the enemy in front of us!" the leader of the gathering shouted, "Team Flora, take the one on the right rooftop. Team Jean, take the one on the left tower! Undine and Veronica – stand by! Back up the other teams as needed!" Internally, she whispered, 'May all of us survive this battle.'

The 'blind' one said something quietly, and though Ryoushi could not hear what he said, he noticed the fearful shivering of the lesser claymores, which was obviously what the other was referring to in the inaudible words. Miria apparently noticed the same thing, because she yelled, "There are three Awakened Ones. We have twenty-four warriors in five teams. We should be able to beat them, so stay calm. Just fight like we always do. LET'S GO!" Miria and her team sprinted forward at the twelve-foot tall flesh-eater, the leader doing the initial attack, before two of her teammates leapt in after her.

Flora's team tore over to their Awakened One's position, and for the briefest of instants, Clare sensed Ryoushi just behind her. "This one is the youki manipulator," he whispered in her ear, "Be careful, Clare." And then he was gone as Flora leapt into the air, aiming up at the position of the yoma, thinking, 'In my team, I've got numbers 8, 18, 30, 39, and 47. But I can probably only use down to number 30. I can't rely on 39 and 47 for battle.' She reached the yoma's position and grasped the handle of her blade. 'I've got to strike before he changes form.' She activated her Windcutter – and was shocked to find that her strikes avoided him completely! 'He's shifting the path of my sword…? This guy…'

Clare sensed a flow shift, and Number Thirty-Nine appeared behind Flora, blade drawn in preparation for attack. The weakest of the hanyoma cried out a warning, and Clare put on a burst of speed using her blade to block Thirty-Nine's sword, kicking her in the gut to get her out of the way. "This one is controlling yoma energy," she warned, "Just like Galatea. He synchronizes with his opponents' energies and manipulates them." On the other side of the roof, Carla was getting back to her feet, lifting her blade.

"My… My body… it's…" she gasped, and the Awakened One sent out a pulse of energy, driving them all to the ground, earning a collective "shit!"

"It's…like… My while body is in a vice grip," one of the other team members managed to grind out.

"He's far stronger than Galatea…" Clare gasped, sensing that Ryoushi and Kinatia were about to interfere, the latter memorizing how the Awakened One did his work to improve her own technique, "I can't believe he can drop us all…"

Meanwhile, Carla was getting closer, saying, "E… everybody… Ge… Get away… P… Please…" She lifted her sword, preparing to kill her teammates. "Can't… stop… My body… won't… obey me… Hurry… Get… away…"

Clare squeezed her eyes shut, building her youki, thinking, 'Help me… Irene!' She unleashed an uncontrolled Quicksword, preventing the Awakened One from controlling it because it was not directed. Her goal was not to kill but to break his concentration and free herself and her comrades. The roof split apart below the fighters and sent them plunging toward the ground, the Claymores forced to use their own skills to land on their feet.

"What's this?" the Awakened One cried, "Her right arm is moving on its own!"

Flora appeared in a blur of motion behind him, preparing to use her Windcutter, but Ryoushi could sense that he was already preparing to move, to dodge her strike. She cut apart his cloak, the Awakened One already gone, having alighted atop the still-whole part of the building, laughing as he did so. "Not bad, ladies," he trilled, "This is starting to get fun." The concealed Awakened One sensed the flow beginning. "This is why I **just love being a monster!" **The now turtle-like being slammed down on the ruins before the team. **"I'll slice you all to ribbons."**

As Team Undine joined Team Flora, the turtle shot out long, tentacle – like quills with intent to harm, and from his hiding place, Ryoushi heard the sound of the quills impacting against flesh and stone.

"Everyone who didn't that just now, turn back!" Undine yelled after the attack, "You're in the way!" The remaining hanyoma charged the nonhuman with her. "Two teams… six out of ten members… Think we're undermanned, Flora?"

"No," Number Eight replied, "let's keep going."

The unknown Awakened One attacked with its bizarre quills again just as the Claymores began their own counterstrike, going straight for his neck in an attempt to decapitate him before he manipulated anyone else's youki. He leapt back out of range of the dual assault, but Undine lunged after him, yelling, "Don't let him get away!" momentarily forgetting his skills, and Flora reminded her too late.

"It's no good! Going after him single-handed…"

"**Heh! You simple-minded fool."**

'Huh?' Undine felt the uncontrolled change in flow, and suddenly her twin swords were crossed at her throat.

"**And now, slash your own throat!" **The turtle lashed the air with its tail, cackling at the spurt of blood that Undine's swords caused. Her teammates called her name in panic, but both Clare and Ryoushi detected a sudden increase in flow to Undine's arms.

"Is that the best you've got?" Number Eleven goaded, "Yours is a pretty dumb technique if all you can do is cut my face."

'She changed the path of her swords by sheer muscle,' Clare realized even as their opponent said the same out loud. Undine lunged forward, shouting at the Awakened One to die, but it used its power to slam the taichou to the ground, telling her to sit awhile. She had no intention of obeying, however, and managed to force herself to her feet despite his power, beginning her attack again. Kinatia, who was hiding in the alley with Ryoushi, began surreptitiously manipulating the Awakened One's youki in ways that made it harder for him to use his own skill; it was almost like a detrimental form of acupuncture. At the same time, both sensors could feel that something was very wrong; Kinatia's work should not have been affecting him to the point that he could not use his power at all…

Flora ordered everyone forward to attack, but Deneve stopped them by holding out a hand. "Don't move," she said, "He's trying to trap us."

Undine's youki shifted and surged up to every Claymore's limit, and she stopped her attack to wrap her arms around herself in a futile attempt to stop the flow while the Awakened One mocked her. **"Being muscle bound is foolish because it takes you so long to figure things out. I can make youki surge just as easily as I can change its flow. And making hothead push past their limits is almost too easy."**

It was then that Clare nodded to Deneve, and they both lunged forward to assist Undine, even though she ordered them to stay back. "Gomen, taichou," Deneve said while Clare distracted the beast, "but I have to kick you."

She was being serious when she said that, Undine found as she slammed back against a pile of rubble, and Deneve joined Clare in fighting the monster just as it used its power to make their youki surge. **"Let's have you join us,"** it declared, but when the dust and snow kicked up by their youki cleared, the two were as normal as ever. **"Impossible! You should have crossed your limits!"**

"Perhaps you're seeing things," Deneve said, calm as ever, "You imagined it."

"Now it's time to finish this fight."

Their teammates were just as surprised as the youki manipulator; they had not noticed Kinatia helping Clare and Deneve hasten their return to normal. The two claymores sped forward and began to cut away at his neck. His hide was incredibly tough, and their initial strikes did nothing more than irritate the beast into attempting to control them. Clare activated the "ace" she had up her sleeve and let the Quicksword run wild over his head and neck. Without a focused aim, he couldn't control the flow, making his skill useless in that situation. That didn't stop him from trying to kill them in other ways, however, as he launched his quills. Clare avoided the strikes completely, but Deneve was pierced in two places on her sides. The Awakened One laughed until Deneve tore herself free and regenerated almost instantly.

"If you wanted to stop me," she said, utterly impassive, "you should have gone for my head." She dropped and brought her blade down on the back of his neck, using the force added by gravity to bite into the tough flesh, but her sword stopped short of cutting completely through. She gritted her teeth. 'I intended to take his head once he stopped, but it appears one cut isn't enough.'

And then a pair of crossed blades landed over her own with a ring of metal-on-metal, and Undine growled, grinning, "Could you not cut all the way through because of your injuries? Or because you're just weak to begin with?"

Deneve channeled youki into her arms as Undine did the same, saying, "Unlike some people, I prefer skill to power." With their combined strength, they were able to cut all the way through his neck and send his head flying off. Even as they did so, Number Twenty-Two realized too late that "He can still manipulate our youki! Get away!"

He synchronized his youki with that of the two weakest members of their combined teams and caused the youki to surge, trying to make them Awaken and join him on the road to hell. He would have succeeded, had Flora and Clare not leapt in and used their respective high-speed attacks to slice apart his head and break the synchronization. It was a very near miss, but it was a miss just the same; Kinatia had been working on imposing a limit to the power they could release when the Awakened One finally died. Helen's team wandered over just then, having finished with their pill-bug like monster a short time ago. Deneve commented that Helen and her team looked at little banged up as they greeted one another before Clare burst out, "Miria? Where is Miria's team?"

"Clare, think for a moment," Deneve said, looking at Clare over her shoulder, "who you're worrying about."

Miria chopped off the head of the Awakened one her team had been fighting just in time for the new arrivals to see it happen, its body collapsing in a spray of blood next to its head. 'The things Miria has gone through, to escape and Awakened One without a scratch, must be incredible. I've gotten stronger,' Clare thought, 'but how much more powerful has she become?'


	4. Chapter 3: The Lion and the Wolf

Chapter 3: The Lion and the Wolf

There had been no casualties in the First Battle of Pieta, but all bets were off when the rest of the Awakened army showed up. Though there were a few severe injuries, none of them were fatal, and Miria said as much later. Undine questioned her leadership because of the fact that it was mostly higher numbered warriors that were injured, but Flora backed up the lowest number in her decision to have them all on relatively even teams. The Claymore dispersed to do their own thing, be it to find some food or replace damaged gear, and Deneve went to the warehouse behind the East Inn, where the handlers had placed all of their gear, intent upon replacing her torn uniform. Upon entering, she could easily see that there was almost an excess of supplies for their gear, even a few replacement claymore swords.

"Who's there!" a voice demanded suddenly, and Deneve recognized it almost instantly, despite the interference of the wooden door.

"It is I, taicho," she replied to Undine's query, "I broke some of my armor in the battle, and I need to change it."

"I'm changing my own! Come back later!"

Deneve was no expert at reading youki like Clare, Kinatia, or the Awakened One Ryoushi, but Undine's was very clearly afraid and trying to hide it. To disguise what she knew and possibly learn something else about the other warrior, she asked about her twin swords.

"I took it from one of the fallen!" Undine snarled from behind the wooden barrier, "You got a problem with that!"

'Too defensive,' Deneve thought approaching the door, not truly thinking about what she was saying and hearing in reply, 'Some no-name low-ranker? A lie if I ever heard one.' She pulled open the door. "Ah. So this is what you truly look like."

Undine's muscles had gone along with her overwhelming youki, leaving her as a frail, shivering figure on the ground between some barrels, arms wrapped around her upper body in an attempt to hide her sobs. Tears were streaming down her face, no matter what she did to hide them, and it appeared as if she had been there for a while, crying her eyes out.

"What's the matter?" Deneve asked, not trying to taunt her no matter what it may have sounded like, "Are you afraid because you touched your limit?" Undine appeared shocked, but Deneve pressed on. "There's no insecurity quite like feeling that you're reaching your limit. That's the moment that you actually feel the blackness inside of you, and all that it entails."

"You talk like you've gone deeper than that," Undine managed to bite out through her tears, and Deneve caught her near-slip.

"That's just what people say, and for a feeble warrior, it must have been truly frightening."

"What did you say?"

Deneve said, "In the beginning, you were a frail, almost useless low-ranker who clung to the comrade you trained with until she was felled in battle because of your own weakness. You swore to become the strongest of all the warriors and never make such friendships again so that you would never again have to feel the pain of such loss. In own world… your story is not so unusual." She leaned back against the door. "Neither is this one: once, a young girl had an older sister, and though they fought, they were close enough to where the older sister sacrificed her life to protect the younger by stuffing her under the bed when a yoma attacked. Because the corpses of their parents were on top of the bed, the yoma never caught her scent and so tortured and devoured the older sister while the younger watched. She forced herself not to scream as the last of her family died, and she was sent to the east to become a hanyoma. Though she wanted more than anything to kill off all yoma, she was terrified of dying and became a defensive type. She became reckless and fought suicidally until a comrade told her, 'It's normal to want to stay alive. We're only human, after all!' Though those words didn't erase her fears, they kept her alive." She looked up into the other's silver eyes. "We're a team, taicho. You aren't alone here."

* * *

Ryoushi silently followed Flora and Clare out onto a nearby deserted plateau, effortlessly keeping himself downwind and out of sight behind a copse of trees. He was wary of the Number Eight around Teresa's successor, even though she said that she simply wanted to test Clare's power. After they sparred for several minutes, Flora demanded to know why Clare was holding back. "This isn't your full power, nothing like what you displayed while facing the Awakened One. Are you not taking me seriously?"

"This is my true strength," Clare said calmly, "The strength my right arm gives me is nothing more than borrowed; it isn't mine."

"That's no excuse," Flora replied, "What I want to see is your total strength. Your Quicksword against my windcutter… which is superior? Depending on what the answer is, I might have to tell Miria to change team captains."

"Nani?"

"The weak submit to the command of those who are stronger than them. That is the way this works." Flora sheathed her blade and assumed her "windcutting" stance. "Whether or not I will continue to be captain depends on which of us is stronger."

Clare tensed but slipped into a stance appropriate for the Quicksword and told Flora the name of her technique, warning her that she couldn't control it exactly.

"If you can manifest that much power, I'll be happy, but don't look down on my windcutter either. I never use more power than is absolutely necessary. If both of us go all out…"

Their attacks collided with extreme force and sliced open the ground in a variety of ways, clearing away all trees in the immediate vicinity and almost hitting Ryoushi in the midst of their battle, and he was forced to use the most miniscule pinprick of youki to escape the high-speed strikes. In those instants, the Awakened One was able to determine that Clare had the speed, but Flora had the power and accuracy, and Number Eight concurred with his assessment. Clare immediately said that the one with higher accuracy should be superior, to prevent teammates from accidentally being slain, and though Ryoushi was reluctant to agree, he did. Clare was still learning how to control the Quicksword and was too volatile to be the leader of a squad.

He waited until Flora had gone back into the city to emerge from the remains of the forest and stand beside Clare. After a moment of silence, he said, "Teresa would be proud of you, you know."

The claymore instantly jerked her head around to stare at the Awakened One.

"Maybe not in the fact that you took her into yourself rather than a normal yoma, which would have made you stronger, but of all that you've accomplished… yes. She would be very proud of you." He stared out into the impending snowstorm as if it heralded the doom of Pieta, watching the seemingly random swirls for a break in a pattern. "Does that surprise you?"

"…no." Clare, too, turned her gaze away from Pieta. "I was happiest with her. I just never thought that she would be proud of me."

"If she were alive… she would be."

* * *

"Everyone, please gather up," Miria called to the hanyoma entering the courtyard outside the cathedral in Pieta. It had been some hours since the scouts had been defeated, and now everyone was almost finished healing. "I have an announcement to make." She pulled out the letter, sent by the head of the organization, and held it up. "We have received back up, of a sort."

The cheering of the higher-numbered half-yoma was almost deafening until Undine stepped forward. "What do you mean, 'of a sort'?"

Number Six gestured to the unmarked woman at her side. "This," she said, "is Number Three, Galatea's protégé, Kinatia. She specializes in manipulating youki." The claymore nodded to them as Miria said her name.

"How can she be our back up? She doesn't even have a symbol, much less a rank!"

"That is because my primary purpose is as a messenger, Undine-taichou," Kinatia said softly, "and a 'delivery girl.'"

"Huh?"

"And this is her 'package,'" Miria continued as if Undine had not interrupted, "the Awakened One, Ryoushi. He is our back up, proper." The man, clad entirely in black, alighted next to the two hanyoma on the cathedral steps, having jumped from the roof, and slid back his hood, gauging the reactions of the other claymores. His hair had grown slightly during his month of travel, but the color was a brown as his eyes. His skin seemed dark compared to the snowy landscape, but it was only a light tan.

Most, as expected, panicked. Especially the weaker ones. Ryoushi simply raised an eyebrow.

"This is insane! Why would the organization send a monster as backup?" Undine shouted, leveling her twin blades at him as many of the others did the same, and Ryoushi was sorely tempted to send them all flying back with a surge of youki. He repressed the urge, however.

"I resent that," the nonhuman said quietly, "and obviously because they're desperate. Isley is heading south by another path, so they need to prevent him from gathering his army later. The only way to do that is to destroy the army." His logic was flawless and made several of the protesters fall silent.

"But…" Flora seemed hesitant to speak to the monster. "Wouldn't the organization know this? Why send you and not more warriors?"

"Because Isley and I are from the same male generation. Though it ended as I in the Number Two slot and he as Number One, we were continuously switching because we had equal power." He paused, apparently woolgathering. "It is highly likely that they hope we will destroy each other and kill two birds with one stone."

"What? Why?"

"In exchange for my service, they offered me free food and amnesty for the rest of my life. No claymore will ever hunt me, and they don't want to pay up on that." He abruptly turned his head slightly, his focus now away from the hanyoma. "They're coming."

"Nani?"

"Isley's army… it's coming."

It was only a few hours more before the first of the Awakened Ones reached the city, and by that time, all of the claymore had concealed themselves in the buildings of the town, as had Ryoushi. He was hiding in the cathedral itself, sitting in one of the pews at the back of the church. It was very rare that he ever set foot inside one of these supposedly sacred buildings. Force of habit, he supposed; as a claymore he had never been allowed to "desecrate" sacred ground with his unnatural presence. Why should that change now, when he was more unnatural than ever?

The doors out to the courtyard opened and closed behind him, and Kinatia joined him in his pew. "All of the citizens have been evacuated to a town south of here," she said, "and we're all ready to go."

Ryoushi's gaze remained fixed on the elegant stained glass window at the back of the church as he spoke. "It's only a matter of time, then."

"Aa." Both continued to examine the fine workmanship of the building as they waited for the Awakened army to get its slow ass to Pieta.

"Rigaldo is here," the nonhuman said finally.

"Who?"

"Rigaldo, the GinGan no Shishio, the Silver-Eyed Lion King. He joined Isley's army, it seems." He tilted his head back to rest it against the back of the pew on which they sat, intending on getting a few winks before the others of his kind showed their ugly mugs, but the feel of the claymores' youki and that of the Awakened Beings was making his system too nervous to sleep. Eventually he got up and paced around at the front of the church while Kinatia watched. The claymores' youki didn't bother her, and she couldn't sense the Awakened Ones as a definitive presence yet; more as a peripheral itch. It was not long before she was nodding off, and he wandered back over to drape his cloak over her, despite the fact that she didn't need it.

It was the thought that counted, he mused as he resumed his nervous pacing, hands folded behind his back as he walked back and forth before the altar, waiting. He sensed Rigaldo stop and order the other monsters forward, which made him walk to the back of the church and peer out of one of the windows, trying to see the approach of Isley's army. It was a futile effort, so he settled for closing his eyes and letting the flow of youki "render" a "map" of his surroundings in his mind.

The beasts were entering the city from the northern gate, as they had expected, and there were several ambushes along the main road waiting to be sprung at the right moment. He wandered back into the sanctuary to wake Kinatia up as a large, stegosaurus-like Awakened One clambered over a building and slammed down in the courtyard, letting out a roar than rattled the windows in their frames. Kinatia was still snoozing, which made him blink at her for several moments before he padded over and shook her shoulder. "'Tia. Wake up, 'Tia. They're here."

The Claymore stirred, then jumped at the feel of so many Awakened Ones having gotten so close without her noticing, and she and Ryoushi made their way to the back of the church. One trap had already been sprung, and now they were waiting for the signal to begin their own assault against the Awakened invaders, and it was not long before it came in the form of a flare of Miria's youki.

Instantly, Ryoushi flung open the doors of the church and leapt onto the shoulders of the nearest Awakened One, drawing his claymore and chopping off its head in a fluid motion. He effortlessly jumped from the falling body and alighted on the ground nearby, blocking the strike of another and hacking off the offending limb, and Kinatia leapt in to assist another team that was struggling, twitching the beast's strikes this way and that like it was some kind of marionette. The allied Awakened One hoped that the Claymores remembered what he'd said before they had gone to their ambush locations: "I'm not God. I can't save everyone, be everywhere at once. I'm merely here to tip the odds in your favor – or to get myself killed, since that seems to be the organizations plan – but regardless; some of you are going to die."

The monster blurred forward, too fast for naked eyes to track, and body-slammed one of his own kind to the ground, grabbing it by ear-like protrusions and tearing its head in two with nothing but brute strength, somehow managing to evade the subsequent spray of purple blood entirely. 'The one Flora and Clare just killed makes four, including mine and Jean's kills,' he thought, replicating Miria's "Gen'ei" – Phantom – to reach Natalie before a different one crushed her legs, 'That leaves twenty-two left, twenty-three if one counts Rigaldo. The GinGan no Shishio should be moving soon; Isley would not be happy if he lost too many soldiers.'

As if mirroring the old adage "speak of the devil and he shall appear," a roar unlike any the Claymores had ever head throbbed through the air and set their eardrums to ringing with the sound. All of the Awakened foes looked up toward the mountains to the north of Pieta, and as the echoing noise died away, they retreated from the city with speed uncharacteristic of such large creatures. "All of you," Ryoushi yelled over the din of questions, "Go hide! NOW! Suppress your youki as far down as it will go; take aura suppressants if you have to!"

"Who is it?" Miria asked even as she complied with his request, "What's coming?"

"The Silver-Eyed Lion King, Rigaldo." Ryoushi stood firm in the courtyard, claymore in hand as he tugged off his cloak. "Ordinarily I'd say that I could easily beat him, but if he's been training…" The one on the steps of the cathedral fell silent as the other appeared through the wind-driven snow, resting a hand on the head of the being that Jean killed. Instantly, Ryoushi pulled on an infuriating smirk. "Long time, no see, waste-of-breath." Ryoushi sounded utterly confident in his abilities, almost smug over the defeat that hadn't even happened yet. "After all those times you tried to kill Isley way back when, I'm surprised you're actually uke-ing for him. How many times has he bedded you so far? Thirty?"

Rigaldo visibly tightened his jaw. "What are you doing here, jackass?"

"What, I can't come and visit my best bud and his bed slave, the waste-of-talent? How rude of you, Rigaldo. I see Awakening hasn't improved your manners any." Ryoushi's lips twitched into a wider smile when he heard the "general" growl deeply. "Your little midnight soiree with Isley has been causing problems for me, too, you know. I just came to see what was up. Then your little drones attacked me." He snorted. Lying to Rigaldo was as easy as it ever was. Which is to say: as easy as using a cup to drink. "Or I suppose the proper thing to call them would be Isley's little drones. After all, you lost to him in more ways than one."

All of the sexual implications were causing Rigaldo's control over himself – already slim to begin with – to slip, and though he struggled to hide it, a vein began to pulse in his forehead, which Ryoushi noticed. "Careful there, cub," he said, bastardizing the lion king's nickname, "Wouldn't want you to have a stroke, now would we? I'm sure Isley wouldn't be happy to lose his favorite." He rested his claymore on his shoulder, still smirking.

"Watch it," Rigaldo snarled, "I was Number Two when I Awakened; you honestly think that I can't beat you?"

Ryoushi raised an eyebrow. "Considering the fact that the only reason you became Number Two was because I Awakened and Roulden died fighting Dauf when he Awakened? I highly, highly doubt you could land a scratch on me." He smirked. "I wonder how good you are in bed? Isley's certainly kept you around long enough…"

Rigaldo let out a roar of fury and lunged at the being on the steps, reverting to his Awakened form as he did so, but Ryoushi simply spun out of the way, opening up a vicious slash on Riglado's flank. "Come on, little cub," he said, leaning down so he could rest his fists on his bent knees as if he was bending over to talk to an animal, "I know you can do better than that. Or did all of your skills go 'poof' the moment Isley had you for the first time?"

The Lion roared again and elongated his claws, trying to skewer the other as fast as lightning, but Ryoushi was faster, swinging his claymore in a graceful arc, cutting through the sharp penetrators. "Oooo," he said, picking a piece of one up and ignoring the way his sudden change in posture caused Rigaldo to miss in his attempted surprise attack, "I can't help but think that these look a little like penises. Is this a sign of some undisclosed desires, Rigaldo? That your claws look like someone's dick?" He mock-gasped. "You really do have the hots for Isley, don't you? Don't worry, I'll never tell." He laid a hand over his heart in a false vow of silence while the Claymores who heard him snickered in their hiding places, trying to keep quiet and not give away their locations.

"**If you must know,"** the lion snapped as he attempted to claw him in half, earning a black eye and missing fingers for his effort when Ryoushi slugged him into accidentally grabbing his claymore by the sharp part, **"Isley's with some girl called Priscilla!"**

Kinatia and Miria forcibly suppressed Clare's reaction while Ryoushi hid his own behind the comment, "Oh, a threesome? I never knew you were so kinky, Gal-Gal."

That caused Rigaldo to lose it entirely and simply focus on killing the other Awakened One, who turned from taunting him with words to slowly wearing him down, opening up cuts along his arms, legs, and torso and forcing him to use up yoma energy to heal them and continue fighting. In the meantime, he was displaying all of his grace, skill, and power for the world to see, flipping over the lion like he was a hedge, doing elegant twists and turns to evade attacks and strike back, blurring to the opposite side of the courtyard like he was taking a single step rather than thirty. All the time, he kept up a steady stream of mockery, taunting the other with the fact that he would always be second best, that if he couldn't defeat Isley, what chance did he have against one who had been Number Two only because Isley had had more kills at the time of his Awakening? 'Almost,' Ryoushi thought, doing a flawless back handspring as Rigaldo tried to slam his fists into the ninja-like fighter, 'Almost… there!'

Rigaldo collapsed, his body reverting back to human form as he slumped to the cold cobblestones of the street, half-healed cuts oozing purple blood into the gaps between the pavers as Ryoushi approached, claymore at the ready. The lion had used too much energy trying to kill the stronger one, and now he could no longer maintain his Awakened form, could barley move to protect himself. "You always were too weak," he said heartlessly, looming ominously, and then severed the creature's head from its body with a smooth cut, before turning back to the city at large. "You can come out now," he called, "It is safe, for the moment."

One by one, the eighteen remaining warriors emerged from their hiding places inside deserted buildings and in the small alleys that divided them, from the arches where statues stood along the exterior of the church, from guard stations along the town wall. Some had managed to squirm into places that he had thought impossible to conceal oneself in, and though they may have required a little help getting out, it was very impressive. 'Never let it be said that Claymores don't obey orders,' he thought as he help tug Deana out of her hiding place in the sewers below the city. He could sense that the rest of the Awakened Ones were approaching the city once again, as could Clare and Kinatia, and they told the others as such. It was decided that those who were severely injured would hang back with those who could heal them, while those who had taken lighter damage would fight up front with Ryoushi.

It was a plan that worked for a while, the injured rotating out with the newly healed – until Pamela was cut down by a nasty, spiked yoma. That seemed to be the cue for the others, because they began dropping like flies. Pamela was first, then Cynthia, followed by Yuliana. He could tell that Cynthia wasn't actually dead, but her youki had been cut off almost entirely by the half-suppressant pill that Miria had given everyone but him before the fight. "I highly doubt you'll need it," she'd commented, "seeing as even Clare can't detect your youki unless she's right next to you." Still, she'd given him one to put in his pocket, just in case.

Veronica was sliced in two by the same spiked Awakened One that killed Pamela, and since it was obviously going to be a problem, he high-tailed it to its position an split it along its lateral line, leaving two mirror halves of the beast bleeding on the snow. Zelda was crushed by another just as he was protecting Deana's back, and Lily was cut down mere moments later. Flora was severely injured, to the point of unconsciousness, by a many-tentacled being, and he felt her youki died out almost completely as he distracted it to keep it from finishing her off and noticing that Miria and Undine were coming up on it from behind. The Awakened One stopped an attack at his head, coming from behind, and whipped around to decapitate the beast just as Carla died under an enormous load of debris from a falling building, hunks crushing and piercing her body. The other claymores began falling until only he was left against eighteen Awakened Beings, and he was able to slip the youki suppressant into his mouth and swallow when one of the remaining beasts slapped him through a wall, consciously slowing his heartbeat by diverting some of the yoma energy away from the muscles that made his heart beat.

The Awakened Ones immediately headed south, not even bothering to check and see if their valiant foes were still alive, but destroyed the town before they left it forever. Buildings crumbled under their massive strength, the lone clock tower hitting the ground in a spray of carefully calibrated gears, and some made a sport out of picking up bits of rubble and hurling them as hard as they could, trying to see who could make the most buildings fall with one throw.

Despite all the destruction, all the death, all the suffering and pain… life continued on.


	5. Chapter 4: Survivors and Surviving

Chapter 4: Survivors and Surviving

"Miria."

It was so warm… and soft…

"_Miria_."

Ah… so comfy… she hadn't been this content in a long time.

"Miria. You need to wake up."

The voice was more insistent now, and though she didn't want to, Miria brought herself around fully and opened her eyes to see Ryoushi leaning over her, a trickle of dried blood running from his hairline to down passed his nose. He didn't appear injured, but at her concerned expression, he elaborated. "The remaining Awakened Ones destroyed the town, but because I couldn't move without exposing the fact that I wasn't dead, I got whacked by some debris."

The Claymore found her voice. "…how…many…?"

"Awakened Ones? About seventeen, eighteen. Claymores?" He lifted his head to look around at the ruins of the city, scanning. "At least ten, but no more than thirteen, if you include me." He helped her sit up and stabilized her when she swayed a little. "I thought the others would be more reassured if you were with me when I started making the rounds," he said, wrapping a few of her wounds with cloth in an effort to slow the bleeding until someone could get to her. He did not want to risk contaminating her youki with his on accident, lest that lead to an unintentional Awakening.

Miria attempted to regain her feet but was forced to rely on Ryoushi for support when her legs refused to hold her weight. The Awakened One carried her to the nearest warrior that he could sense a youki from and unceremoniously grabbed a bucket of water he'd set aside just for that purpose, promptly proceeding to dump it all over Tabitha's face. The Claymore promptly choked and sputtered, having inadvertently inhaled some of the water, but he helped her roll over and thumped her back as she coughed. After a few hacks, she was relatively all right, so he moved on to Cynthia, who was ten feet away, and dumped another bucket of water on her, as well. After going through the same procedure with her, he got them to help him by using their youki to stimulate that of the Claymores they were trying to wake up. He figured that actual Claymores using their youki would be better than him; the unconscious ones might accidentally attack him before they could remember that he was an ally.

Several offensive type warriors were missing limbs and such, so he was assigned to search for their body parts, to make the healing process easier. Unfortunately, Undine bled out before he could find her legs, which severely depressed the remaining warriors. In the end, Miria, Clare, Jean, Flora, Helen, Cynthia, Tabitha, Uma, Deneve, Kinatia, and Ryoushi were the only survivors; eleven out of twenty-six was still better than zero. The Awakened One amongst the group scouted through the remains of the town for any Claymores still alive and under youki suppressants while the hanyoma began to bury their dead; he believed that it would be better for them to do it, and not because he was lazy, but because he could provide cover in case there was any Awakened Ones hanging back from the main force.

It was not entirely impossible, he thought as he alighted on the remains of a general store and began rifling through what was left, determining what was edible or usable and what was not. It was a habit he had noticed in many of his kind: the stronger ones go through first, get the lion's share, and the weaker ones follow to clean up what's left. He gathered up all of the usable gear and returned to the group that was interring their dead beneath the permafrost. Clare and Flora had to use their respective Quicksword and Windcutter on a lot of the frozen earth to break it up enough to where it could be moved to make graves. About half of the corpses were already buried, and Miria was helping Kinatia to shovel the earth back on top of Undine's body.

Ryoushi set the gear down a short distance away and paced over to assist in the burial, giving his report simultaneously. "Most of the town was entirely destroyed, but much of the stuff inside the buildings is intact. I have found several general stores that have gear we can use. If we can't find what we need, I guarantee that there will be more in the towns further north. Isley and Rigaldo will have had them focus on Pieta because we were here."

"Sou ka," Miria said as she shoved one of Undine's swords into the ground as a grave marker, "No other survivors?"

"None that I can find by scent or youki."

"Damn. Everyone's accounted for here, though, and all of the humans were sent down south prior to the battle. We can take what we need." She paused abruptly, staring at him momentarily. "You will need to hunt."

"I can do without. We don't have to eat guts," he said, dropping his gaze as he spoke, "but it helps us maintain our aged appearances. I did an experiment on it when I had enough control to stop feeding, and I just started shrinking because my body began to consume nonvital excesses. I looked like I was seven when I started feeding again." He looked up over toward Clare and Flora, who were finished churning up the ground and had begun to lay the bodies of their comrades in the gaps left behind. The former's youki seemed calm, but he could clearly feel the strain threaded throughout her body, and Number Eight was not much better. "How much longer until nightfall?"

"I don't know, maybe three hours?"

"Then we'll need to find shelter. Even though it may be late spring, there's a snow storm coming, and you all probably don't have enough youki to survive it." Ryoushi padded over to where Cynthia was helping to heal Jean's stomach wound. "Can she be moved?" he asked softly.

"Carefully, yes." The healer reluctantly let up to allow him to gather the Claymore into his arms, and she followed him toward the icy mountains, trying to heal Jean as she did so. Since the town was destroyed, they had to get out of there and into the mountains while Ryoushi gathered up what he could before and during the storm, as he was the only one with enough youki to do so. The hanyoma crammed themselves into the cave where the half-Awakened Claymores first met their Awakened half-brother, and he took to burying the gear in the snow in one mass "grave" so it could not be blown away be the fierce winds that howled across the plateau where Pieta once stood, flinging snow up into his eyes when he was making the journey back toward the cave and driving it into his skin like needles. It was hard work, but he managed to get all salvageable gear and excess supplies under cover before the storm worsened even further.

To spare his comrades the discomfort of being in the same cave as their mortal enemy for an extended period of time, Ryoushi hunched close to the ground at the cave mouth, staring out into the world of white that the snowstorm had created, his long cloak shielding him from any cold that his youki could not drive off. The Claymore took youki suppressants to hide from any of the searchers immediately sent to determine the outcome of the battle with the Awakened Ones, while Ryoushi stood guard with the intent of warning them in the unlikely event that someone approached during the whiteout. It took almost twenty-four hours for the storm to blow itself out, and that was the last storm they had that season.

During the time in the cave, the hanyoma had a conference on whether or not they should banish or even kill the Awakened One, and Clare, Miria, Kinatia, and – shockingly enough – _Flora_ argued in favor of keeping him. Kinatia said that he had been raised in the north and could help them survive by more than just the skin of their teeth. Cynthia stated that she was neither for nor against him staying, but if the others decided that they would not have him in their little "rebel group," she asked that they let him leave unharmed. "After all, he saved our lives by taking on that Lion for us." Uma said the same, and Jean expressed that while she preferred that he go, she would not protest if he stayed. Helen, Deneve, and Tabitha were the only ones truly against him staying, but Miria's crew won out over them. The "Against" group had stated that he would still be killing humans if they stayed together in the north, and someone was bound to call for a team of Claymore, but Miria said, "Isley's army left devastation in its wake. Do you honestly think that there are any living humans left in the northern lands? He would have to travel south to hunt – a three-day journey – and we would notice if he went missing."

So Ryoushi stayed.

"Clare, you're releasing youki."

"I'm trying…"

"Do or do not. There is no try. Now, again. Without youki." Flora tightly gripped the handle of her claymore, waiting. Both Clare and she were practicing using their respective sword techniques against each other, trying not to use youki. Flora herself had taken a suppressant to prevent any youki from slipping in accidentally, and Ryoushi was watching critically. He was the best sensor they had, and thus was perfect for the job. As an added bonus, no one dared question his abilities because he was so powerful.

Miria padded over to their little soiree from where she had been strengthening her legs and body to use the phantom without youki. "Ryoushi," she said, "I need to talk to you. Privately, if possible."

The Awakened One blinked in surprise before climbing down off of the rock he had been sitting on and crunching off after the team leader. He knew that she would not hurt him, but he was curious as to what she wished to speak to him about. They moved some distance from their "home," a large cavern set into a mountain west of the remains of Pieta, and Miria turned to face him, sinking down into a crouch as she gestured for him to do the same. "It's been almost a year and a half," she said, "since Pieta fell. And I'm kind of worried."

"Oh? How so?"

"You haven't felt any youki entering or leaving the north, have you?"

"No… but if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, it'll take a lot more to topple the organization than a bunch of dumb-ass weaklings like those were," he said bluntly, "If this 'Alicia' has been completed – and I have a sneaking suspicion that she has – she would have been enough to stop them in their tracks. Isley himself would have gone straight south and thus not gotten caught up with her."

"And Riful of the West?"

"I suspect that Isley split the remainder of his forces," Ryoushi said, drawing a diagram in the snow to explain, "Half of his allies went east, the other half west, and since there was an even number left, there would have been an even split." He sat back on his heels as Miria examined his assessment.

"I'm inclined to agree with you," she said, "But how are you for… well, you know." She gestured at his person in general.

He understood. "I'll be fine." As he had promised those who were dubious about him staying, he had not hunted any humans, had not even left a fifty-mile radius of their camp for the past year and a half. As a result, he was just beginning to shrink and had dropped almost two inches and about three years or so in the past month. He now looked like he was just this side of being a short twenty-five-year-old and had looked thirty when they all had met.

"Are you sure? I don't need you going berserk-"

"I'll be fine, Miria-san. I know my limits. I won't reach it for several years yet."

"We're running low on food."

"Claymores? Low on food? Given how little you all eat, I never thought I would hear those words in this company."

"I didn't know Awakened Ones could be snarky, Ryoushi."

"Learn something new every day, now don't you? And if no one is adverse to a little hunting – "

"We don't eat people, Ryoushi-teme!"

"I was going to say that there are polar bears further north. And elk in the tree line about two miles south."

"…oh."

"Think before you speak, Helen. Or at least let the man finish his sentence."

Ryoushi twitched as Kinatia used two thin, flat strips of metal to carefully pull splinters from under his skin. Their group had been hunting a polar bear with a rather nasty temper close to the tree line on the tundra, and it had charged him unexpectedly, head butting him in the stomach and sending him flying though several evergreens, ending in a rather painful collision with one of said evergreens' trunks. Some of the larger splinters had torn though his clothes, forcing Kinatia – the only one who could stand to be that close to him – to be the one to pull the slivers that he couldn't reach.

They got the kill, however, and Deneve was carrying the carcass back to their home base to be cleaned and smoked to preserve the meat. After all, there was no salt.

The Awakened One was unable to stop the hiss that escaped him as Kinatia gave a particularly hard yank to one of the more stubborn pieces, unintentionally tearing off some of his skin with the wood. "Sorry, sorry," she said, tossing the piece away and carefully tugging at another even as the wound healed over. The cold helped soothe the pain of the many, tiny wooden spikes sticking out of his back, and Miria wandered over with Clare to see how he was doing. The latter had been knocked half silly by an elk that was being tracked down at the same time, so Miria was keeping an eye on her.

"How are you?" the leader asked him, and he caught the double meaning in her question.

"I'll be fine," he said. Every time she asked, he gave the same response. It had been six and a half years since Pieta's fall, and he now looked like he was about ten. Helen had taken to adding "chan" to his name, and though everyone expected him to jump her for calling him "Ryuu-chan" at every interval, he simply rolled his eyes and sighed, letting her poke fun at him. It was her way of coping.

Abruptly, he turned his head, looking at some distant object, too distant for any of the others to get a read on it.

"What is it?"

"Nothing much." He shook his head. "Just a couple of Awakened Ones. I think Isley's ganging up idea has finally caught on."

Six months later, four Claymores came into the north to kill the Awakened beings, and Miria made the decision to keep a close eye on them as they began the hunt. Kinatia was able to get close enough to overhear part of the conversation about the organization's changed policy on Awakened Ones and swiftly relayed the Intel to Miria while Helen, Deneve, and Flora took out the yoma. Ryoushi poked the body of the last one that was killed, a nasty-looking, many-legged body of an insect. "I'm so ashamed. Our feet look alike in Awakened Form," he moaned, covering his face with his hands as Cynthia and Tabitha gave the injured Claymores first aid, "I don't want to be associated with idiots…"

Helen garnered amusement from that statement as his expense before they all fell silent. The hanyoma who still had color in her hair – Clarice – was waking up, and all of them retreated to a cliff edge a short distance away, close enough to watch but far enough away to where she wouldn't notice them unless they purposely drew attention to themselves. Unfortunately, the battle had taken place very close to the graveyard of the comrades in the Battle of Pieta. The mud-haired girl saw the blades of the fallen and, as they watched, counted them several times.

"No matter how many times I count," she said, unaware of the watchers above, "there are only fifteen grave markers. So nine are missing from the twenty-four."

"And what are Kinatia and I," Ryoushi grunted under his breath, "chopped liver?"

"It is likely," Miria said lowly as they watched, "that the organization did not want people to know that you were commissioned and sent here, so they obliterated any traces of your existence."

"Bastards."

"Mmm. In any case, things are what they are. It is extremely unlikely that she or her comrades can detect us, as we have been able to prevent any of our youki for creeping out into the world after suppressing it for seven years. However, we can detect and avoid them and any who follow. Even if the organization did send someone after us, trying to find us here is nearly impossible. The organization wouldn't waste someone that valuable on a task as miniscule as finding us." After a moment, "What is she up to, Ryoushi-san?"

"Searching for that boy. Raki, was it? Uma went to keep an eye on her." He pointed. "'Bout forty miles that way." He sat down properly rather than continue crouching above the snow, letting his legs dangle off the cliff edge. The Awakened One perked up. "They're waking up."

There was a groan from below as one of the other warriors stirred, and the deserters retreated back to their "cavern sweet cavern," as the snarky former Claymore put it once, accepting some food from the three that stayed behind. Kinatia loved cooking, they had discovered, and the Claymores served as her guinea pigs for recipes. Flora and Jean had stayed behind to spar in the vast darkness; even their perpetual fire could not reach the far edges of the cave unless someone walked the perimeter with a torch. Miria's group could hear the ringing cadence of colliding blades out in the darkness before Kinatia called to invite them to eat, and though Ryoushi lurked in the dark away from them, they chatted about meaningless things until Clare and Uma returned, the former expressing her shocking intention.

Of course Helen was the loudest. "WHAT? Go south past Pieta!"

Clare explained her point of view about her human friend, saying that he could not have stayed seven years in the north as they had; he would have needed more food, more supplies than the north had left to offer him. Miria demanded to know why Clare believed that Raki could have possibly survived, and the hanyoma explained what she had seen and deduced based on those sights. Ryoushi sensed Miria's intent from far back in the cave and joined the group as the two went outside, claymore swords drawn. The Awakened One closed his eyes as Miria ordered Clare to attack her, focusing; for all of their skill at hiding youki, Ryoushi could still detect the yoma energy as it flowed around their bodies. He used his ability to "render" his surroundings based on what he sensed, and nodded silently to the Phanom; Clare was firm in her decision, no one ounce of hesitation. To his mind, her youki appeared as a resolute navy mixed with the subtle deep red swirls that marked her as a half-Awakened One. The darkness of a color depended on its determination, and it changed without the Claymore's conscious command, depending on what was on their mind.

"How," Clare asked, unaware of the exchange, "am I supposed to take this?"

"In any manner you please," Miria replied, gripping her sword more tightly, "With all your strength, come." She lunged forward, using her new Phantom. Though she was not as fast as before, she was more agile and had higher endurance, enabling her to use the new phantom as many times as she wanted.

Clare, however, had been forced to train harder than any of them save Kinatia in order increase her arms' strength to the point where she could use the Quicksword freely without youki – and with both arms, at the insistence of Ryoushi. He had highly recommended that they all at least have experience performing one another's techniques to increase the probability of catching an enemy off-guard and escaping with more than one. The Awakened One watched as Clare completed Miria's assessment and garnered her permission to head south, but he was shocked that she was going with her; he had not thought that she would be so impulsive.

Eventually all of the hanyoma were in agreement: they would go south to defeat their enemies. It was then that the leader turned to him. "What about you, Ryoushi? Are you coming with us?"

He snorted disdainfully. "What reason have I to stay here? Besides," he rolled his eyes, "I'm sure Helen would feel better if I was always within sight."

"HEY!"


	6. Chapter 5: Riful of the West

Chapter 5: Riful of the West

While Helen was the most expressive of her joys to be out of the land of eternal snows, Ryoushi was much quieter and subtler about his happiness, just a twitch of his lips at her usual outgoing self. Though she was the only one who expressed it out loud, all of them were happy to be somewhere other than Alphons; the northern territories were truly depressing and reminded them too much of their fallen comrades.

The trees were so green, the water of the river below and almost unbelievable placid blue as it gurgled south, toward the ocean. Clouds over the mountains to the west indicated possible rain, which the hanyoma would relish if it came their way; so much of a change from the pure white world they had lived in for seven years. The Awakened One closed his eyes and scented the wind; the snow had always muffled his sense of smell, the extreme cold burning his nose, the ice itself smothering the scent the way its brother water would. A flash burn touched his stomach; there were humans on the road to the eastern land of Sutafu, but he resisted the urge to hunt them, impressed at the control he still had over himself. It was hard, but he was able to lock his body in place until they passed out of range.

"Ryoushi," Miria said, looking at him, and he automatically understood what she wanted, stepping forward to the cliff edge and ignoring the subtle change in Deneve's suppressed youki. Old habits die hard, he mused before closing his eyes and focusing.

"Within my range, there are sixteen warriors, five possible single digits: two straight ahead, two and my two o'clock, and one at my ten. There is a handful of yoma in close proximity to one another at my three o'clock; the single digits at my two seem to be heading that way. I only sense one living Awakened One in my range." He opened his eyes, silently staring off in the direction of the "failed" claymore. "Creature of the Abyss, Riful of the West."

"?" All of the hanyoma visibly recoiled at his words, despite the fact that he himself was an Abyssal One in all but name; he had been continuously switching places with Isley, after all. Kinatia stepped up next to him and laid her hand on his shoulder to amplify her own abilities at detection, intending to get a reading of the youki so she could avoid it in the future. The feel of the incredibly vast youki wrapped in the aura of an ordinary Awakened One set her nerves on edge, and she distinctly stayed close to the seeming ten-year-old, seeking instinctive protection from the unofficial Abyssal One. He could faintly hear the sounds of Riful's passage through the forest; she was heading for the hunting party directly ahead, and he told their group as much even as he sensed her interacting with the hunters.

"One of the single digits has drawn her sword; it seems she's planning to fight," he said, detecting the flow and change in youki from passive to aggressive. Though with this one, it seemed to go from aggressive to aggressive-er.

"Assessment, Ryoushi," Miria demanded.

"They're _so_ gonna die." He sighed, knowing that Miria was going to take a troupe and run off to rescue them. "You'll be able to get away, so long as you don't use your youki."

Almost instantly, she called Flora, Jean, and Clare to come with her and help retrieve the fools who didn't even realize the truth about Riful's youki aura, and they tore off into the trees, aiming for the group of hunters and the creature herself. Naturally, Helen wanted to go after them, but Deneve managed to hold her back. "They only need one fighter per warrior," the former Number Fifteen said, grasping her friend's arm, "It would be a pain to round the rest of us up or heal us if we got injured."

"But Clare – "

"Has the flesh and blood of Bishou no Teresa, Teresa of the Faint Smile, inside her. Though she might have been dead last in the rankings, she is only one-quarter yoma. Taking that into consideration, she is very good at what she does." Ryoushi closed his eyes again and focused on the battle ahead. Riful was talking; he could almost make out her words based on the flow of youki through her mouth…

"…without resistance or strength and turns their strength against them with her gentle sword. I'm honored to have met the might Number Three and Number Five. But the strong sword cannot reach me, and the gentle sword cannot cut me. You cannot defeat me."

Number Five spoke briefly; he had to really focus to "hear" the words, "…has-been. You can't understand that times have changed." Both leapt up onto Riful's body, effortlessly jumping from "crossbeam" to "crossbeam," and when the former Number One attacked with her blades, Number Three used her gentle sword to redirect the attacks away from herself and her comrade. Number Five pulled back her sword with the intent to finish the battle with a single strike that would cut an ordinary Awakened One in two. However, this was not an ordinary Awakened One; this was Riful of the West, the Creature of the Abyss and the Mistress of Blades. She should not have been treated so lightly.

Using the resistance provided by Number Three's gentle sword, Number Five prepared to split her in two, saying, "This is the power of the new generation!" At the last second, Riful moved her upper body so that the attack did not strike her "head," but it still was able to cut into her body a fair distance. "While you were sleeping in the Abyss, the world changed," she declared, and though Riful warned her against attacking again, the hothead did so anyway. The watching Awakened One was reminded of the former Number Eleven, Undine; both were very impulsive, though with the late Claymore it was just a front to hide the fact that she was afraid.

When Number Five tried to attack again with her "resistance buildup" technique, Riful simply dropped her upper body below the plane of the strike, pointing out that her skill had too many flaws; at most it could effectively be used only once to surprise the enemy. She asked if they had any other skills that could be used in an attempt to kill her, but there were none to be had. Number Five struck at her repeatedly while Three went around back and tried to pierce Riful's open wound, but to no avail. Five attempted to do a lateral split, but Riful unintentionally deceived them by separating her body into its tentacle-like components. It was then that Audrey, Number Three, sensed Riful's real youki concealed beneath the false aura and began to shake in fear. Riful commented that Galatea, Jean, and Clare had picked up on her deception so much faster, but two of them _had_ specialized in the detection of youki, so she supposed that it was simply a matter of different warrior types.

Rachel, Number Five, demanded that Audrey tell her what was wrong, and Audrey whispered, "We can't… the youki we felt… it's not the real thing… We can't defeat her…"

"Don't be scared of this bitch! You're Number Three!" Rachel snapped in reply, and in retaliation for the "bitch" comment, Riful pierced her from below with her blades.

"You do realize that I could have done that at any time, right? You _are_ standing on my body." For Audrey, she was much gentler, wrapping her up with her tentacles and gently stoking her face, earning a gasp from the hanyoma. "There's no need to be scared; I hid my youki so you wouldn't feel threatened – Oh, ick. Please don't do that on my body. You deserve credit for facing despite knowing who I am, but I was hoping you'd see through me. How disappointing. Oh well. I'll take whatever help I can get from you two. All I have to do is make you Awaken, and since she's passed out," referring to Rachel, who was indeed unconscious, "I guess I'll start with you."

Even without his ability to sense youki flow down to the smallest twitches, Ryoushi could hear Audrey's screams from the cliff top almost a mile away as Riful began to torture her into Awakening. At the same time, Clare and Flora reached the weaker hanyoma hiding in the woods and swiftly knocked them out, forcing them to swallow youki suppressants once they were down for the count. Miria, who was their fastest, strongest jumper, alighted on Riful's body and laid a hand on one of the tentacles holding Rachel up to gain the Abyssal One's attention. In a single swift leap, she was carrying the hanyoma off, leaving Riful to shout, "You can't just steal my prey like that!"

While she was temporarily distracted, Jean wound up her drill sword and used it to shatter the strips of flesh holding Audrey prisoner, bearing her off of the Awakened One's huge body. The loyal hanyoma tried to push away from the half-Awakened claymore, but Flora slammed her foot into her gut as she arrived, Jean shoving the suppressant down her throat moments later. The creator of the windcutter sensed the attack from Riful but chose to let Clare handle it to give her more practice with using the Windcutter without youki. She successfully redirected all of the tentacles the Creature of the Abyss sent their way, and Jean rose, carrying her hanyoma. Riful immediately demanded to know who they were, but Miria ordered them to scatter.

Flora, Jean, and Miria instantly tore off in different directions, vanishing into the trees, and Riful launched attacks along the routes she thought they would take away from her location. She didn't want to ruin the whole territory and said as much, but she hated that their skittering about like little bugs might force her hand. That was when Clare stepped in, of course, and replied to Riful's unasked question. "There's something I want to ask of you, Riful of the West."

"Ah!" the Awakened One said, remembering, "You were one of the three that fought Dauf seven years ago. How nostalgic. And how are the others? Especially the one with the long hair."

"I don't need to give you an answer," Clare said, shifting the weight of the unconscious hanyoma on her shoulder.

"Oh, come now. Is that any way to ask a favor?"

The half-Awakened woman hesitated for a moment, then spoke again. "One of them is with me. I haven't seen the long hair one since that day."

"What a shame. So, what did you want to ask me?" She lightly grasped the wrist of one hand with the other hand and assumed a stance that said, "Ask your question. I might answer."

"A large number of the Awakened Ones from the north came here seven years ago. Based on the fact that you are still here, I assume I am correct in saying that you won. But what about the organization? How did it fare, and what is it like now?" All of those who were capable of doing so were listening anxiously for the answer from the Abyssal One.

"I see. Your youki's vanished state, your knowledge of Isley's army – more than what I told you… the organization must have sent you north to fight them, but after you failed, you remained hidden in the north. She turned her head slightly, a soft grin lighting her unnatural features. "Well, I won't ask more questions that necessary; it's old news, after all. I'll give you an update, but I do have a condition."

"Oh?"

"I want you to join me," Riful said, speaking as if she was merely stating that the sky was blue rather than declaring that she wanted Clare to throw away her humanity for a life of eternal servitude, "Though I'd prefer the long-haired girl from before, you're proficient enough at reading youki that I'll take you in her place. I have need of your skills. And as I said years ago, it's the quickest way to your revenge."

'Not if she kills her first,' Ryoushi thought, feeling a ripple of disgust run through Clare.

"All right," Clare said, "All take it into serious consideration."

"Smart girl," Riful smiled, "I guess I can tell you what happened, then. Eighteen Awakened Ones came out of the north seven years ago and split up evenly: nine went east, and the other nine went west. Isley went straight south and took that land from Luciela, who disappeared shortly thereafter. All of his 'army' died, regardless of which way they went."

"And how," Clare said, managing to maintain her façade of calm, "did the organization defeat nine Awakened Ones?"

"They created a new Abyssal One, in a sense, so it's still a three-way deadlock."

"If Isley went to fight and kill this 'Luciela,' why didn't you take the opportunity to go and kill him with your own two hands?"

"Once again, you display your intelligence. Of course I went; I knew I wouldn't have an opportunity like that ever again, and Isley was half-dead as it was. Luciela put up quite the fight, but just as with his underlings, he disregarded her, and she fell. After that, I was able to get close enough to stand before him. But that was when I saw… that _thing_…"

_The ground had been torn to shreds by the fight between the great northern and southern Abyssal Ones, and dust was still being picked up by the wind and thrown into the air, making it taste like dirt and dryness. Boulders lay strewn about like some mythical giant had come off the mountains to either side of the valley and decided the immense stones would make good toys, hurling them about randomly. Isley, the Silver King of Alphons and now of Musha, was sitting on a small plot of undisturbed earth, a woman at his side. She had jagged brown hair and brown eyes and was resting a hand on his left shoulder, gaze on the newcomer Awakened Ones._

_Riful was shocked. "Isley…"_

_He smirked as he panted for breath. "You're too late," he gasped, "The moment Luciela was toppled was the moment all of my ideas became real. No matter what any of you do, no one can kill Priscilla now."_

_The Creature of the West gritted her teeth and whirled to leave, knowing that Isley would not attack her; he had no reason to, not anymore. "Let's go, Dauf," she snapped._

"_But Riful, you…" Dauf looked at her retreating back with concern._

_The girl's nose wrinkled. "I can't hardly believe it," she whispered, "That woman is far more powerful than us!"_

Clare remained impassive; she knew exactly who it was that Riful was talking about and was not in the least bit surprised. The others hiding in the trees, however, were shocked; there was something out there stronger than an Abyssal One, the strongest of all the Awakened Ones? How was that possible? Clare spoke. "So what you told me before, that Isley had subdued Priscilla; it was a falsehood that he spread?"

"So it would seem. It appears to me that the moment he realized he could not beat her, he chose to swear loyalty to her and became her general, but as you said, he lied to the world. The only way for her to be defeated was for Luciela and I to ally with one another, but Isley took the initiative and killed her. I can't very well join the organization against them, and the fool actually seems to have fallen in love with that thing. They could conquer the world if they chose, but they've stayed quiet ever since. The potential is there, and that's why I've been scouting out troops ever since, you see?"

"Somewhat. There is one thing I do not understand: my powers would be woefully inadequate in the face of this beast, especially compared to yours. Why do you want me?"

"I want someone who excels at reading yoma energy, not that I want you to fight. After I left Isley, I found something interesting. If I can get it to wake up, I can use it to tip the balance in my favor or at least hold them off indefinitely. But I can't use it yet, so that's where you come in. A warrior that can sense yoma energy has the potential to manipulate it as well." She smiled. "That's why I'm so happy you'll be joining me."

"I said that I'd give it some thought," Clare said, "and I have. I'm afraid I'll have to decline. If this thing turns on you or becomes more powerful than you, I'd rather not be anywhere near it." And then using a reasonable facsimile of Miria's "Phantom," she vanished into the forest, the rest of her comrades also scattering to the four winds. Ryoushi could feel that they would return safely and so opened his eyes and slackened his focus. Kinatia squeezed his shoulder, having been privy to the distant interactions of the warriors and beast via his youki. He had strange properties, now that his youki was gone from the world, including the fact that when hanyoma touched him, they were able to detect youki well outside of their own ranges; there was some strange way that he amplified the youki when it flowed around him. The warriors returned a few minutes later, and Flora and Jean dropped all of the other hanyoma's swords on the ground near their unconscious owners.

The Awakened One sensed that the Number Three was beginning to stir and yanked up his hood to hide his face, to prevent her from realizing what he was. She groaned as she came back around, reaching up to touch her forehead as she sat up, saying, "Damn… you fed me a youki suppressant, didn't you?" Audrey winced at another throb of pain from the wounds Riful inflicted. "Who… the hell are you?"

"Feel free to guess," Miria said as Kinatia dropped her hand from his shoulder, him reaching up to grasp it, "but we won't tell you anything. We would, however, like to know the names of Numbers One through Five and how the organization is doing."

"You honestly think I'll answer when you ask like that?" Audrey's eyes roamed their group, apparently memorizing faces, until she reached Ryoushi. He read her expressions and youki like they were her thoughts; she was confused, as hanyoma were sterile, but here Kinatia was, holding his hand like she was his mother. She assumed her was human, a child taken in by their group, and so glossed over him, though he was the most dangerous of them all.

"We saved you and your team from the Creature of the Abyss. I didn't think a warrior skilled enough to become Number Three could ignore a debt like that." When Audrey dropped her gaze, Miria said, "I'll rephrase the question, then. Is Alicia complete?"

Audrey was visibly startled and seemed about to ask how they knew – and then cursed herself for giving the answer away.

"I see. Your expression was enough. Let's go, everyone."The Phantom turned to leave, and Ryoushi nudged Clare, making a brief gesture which she understood.

"Number Three, Galatea – is she still alive?" Kinatia was instantly on-edge, hoping for word of her teacher –

Is this answer enough? I am Number Three."

Clare nodded and turned away, and Ryoushi squeezed Kinatia's hand when he sensed her crippling despair.

"She may still be alive. In the chaos seven years ago, she deserted from the organization, though they said she died fighting an Awakened One. Even now, no one is capable of getting close enough to her to execute her, and her youki should have all but vanished. Just like yours." The deserters remained silent, so Audrey continued, "This may seem insufficient, but I consider us even, now."

"You have our thanks; this is plenty."

As they tore away from the other claymore, Ryoushi voiced what they were all thinking. "So where do we go from here?"

"Musha?" Uma suggested.

"Isley's there."

"Right."

"And we're already in the West, the organization's in the East, so it's to Rabona we go," Ryoushi grunted, already adjusting his course, "Besides, if I were a claymore on the run, that's where I'd go. Galatea might be there, and we could use to have her as our ally."

"Rabona it is, then."


	7. Chapter 6: Revelations in Rabona

Chapter 6: Revelations in Rabona

Ryoushi cocked his head and took to the trees after they decided to search Rabona for Galatea, the region of Toulouse almost within range. At the same time, he could tell that something was very, very wrong. Even though he could not sense them as definitive presences, he could feel the animals at the edge of the boundary were extremely wary, almost as if they were expecting an attack from something big. That set him on edge; animals always knew better than people when the storm was coming. They slipped across the border between Lautrec and Toulouse – and he was bombarded by the youki of an Awakened One in the city. He cursed, put on a burst of speed to get there faster; Miria called, "Ryoushi-san, what is it?"

"It's Rabona," he yelled over his shoulder as the hanyoma increased their speed to keep up, "There's an Awakened One fighting a handful of warriors in the city!" Then, realizing, "One of them is Galatea!"

"Teacher," Kinatia whispered, leaping up next to him in the trees. She found that it was a lot fast jumping from branch to branch, changing heights, rather than having to adjust one's footing for the changing terrain below. "How is she doing?"

"Struggling. I think the claymores with her were sent to execute her, because the one that's fighting her is practically ignoring the Awakened One." Ryoushi cleverly flipped over the last branch of the forest and burst out of the tree line, now on a farming plain that would take them to Rabona. The hanyoma exploded out behind him, Clare and Miria in the lead, and they tore across the fields, managing to not destroy any of the crops in their passage, and Ryoushi successfully resisted the urge to deviate from his course and track the human farmers back to their homes for dinner. He did change course, however, to briefly hunt and slay the yoma that he could sense in a nearby town. The hanyoma continued on without him, but he knew that it would be best for them to get there first and explain about him before one of the uninformed claymores attacked him on accident.

"Do you not wish to see Galatea first?" he asked Kinatia when he sensed that she was tailing him, "It _has_ been seven years."

"She can wait," the woman said as she pulled her claymore from its sheathe, "and as many times as I have proved to Miria that I can hold my own in battle…"

"…she doesn't want you to get caught up in the fight. Why does she think that running around killing yoma with a hungry Awakened One is any better?" He snorted, slowing as they reached the outskirts of the town where the yoma was hiding. Correction, where the yoma were hiding. They were so close together that they had seemed to be one youki, and they had obviously been together a long time; their youkis were incredibly similar, similar enough to make him pause and ponder for a moment. How, when yoma and their by-products were sterile…? 'Hmm. Thoughts for another time.' Ryoushi made a gesture with his hands; you circle around from that side. She nodded and disappeared into the crowd, and they hunted down the yoma one by one, tracking them silently after they left their mysterious little gang bang fest inside a warehouse by the river that ran through the area. It abruptly slammed into Ryoushi as he dumped one of the bodies in the river: this was Intore, the town that he had lived in so many times. It was only seven years ago that he had left this place, and already yoma were staking claims on what had been his territory. It aroused those instincts: 'Mine! This place is mine!' his inner beast snarled, but he pushed it aside.

One could not honestly expect the place to remain undefiled, he sighed, but at least he was there to clean it up and hopefully inhabit it again when their campaign against the organization was over and done. He flicked his claymore, cleaning it of the blood of the yoma, and sheathed the blade over his back, preparing to hunt the next one.

"Well, well, lookie here!" said a voice from behind him, one that he recognized with a sense of dread, "A little boy and a stolen claymore."

Ryoushi turned to face the voice's owner. At the mouth of the alley there was an adult with short blonde hair and eerie blue eyes. It was Yakuro and his gang, now grown up from the child bullies that they once were. They had always teased and picked on the weaker children in the town, and it appeared that they had reverted back to their degenerate ways in his absence, having taken the threat of severe punishment with him when he left for Pieta. "Gaki," he growled under his breath, reaching up and gripping the claymore's handle.

Yakuro laughed at his action. "You can't lift that, boy, so let us take it and no one will be the wiser." He took a step toward Ryoushi, appearing to look him up and down like he was appraising livestock. The Awakened One's lips curled, recognizing the look of one who sold humans into slavery, and whipped the longsword out of its sheathe, touching the tip to the adult's throat. All of the humans visibly recoiled; he looked like a child to them, but he was effortlessly holding a blade that was taller than he was.

"I am a yoma, human," he said in a deceptively soft voice, "and this is my hunting ground now. So unless you intent to become my next meal, I highly suggest that you leave."

Yakuro gulped, and the gang scattered to the four winds, desperate to get away from the monster child inhabiting their town. He resheathed his sword, muttering about degenerate idiot humans, and Kinatia took that opportunity to pop up. "What was that all about?" she asked, cocking her head.

"Baka ningen," he grunted, "trying to take my sword away." He stamped out of the alley with the still-hooded hanyoma following him, and they split up again, killing the three remaining yoma and walking out of the town in the direction of Rabona, holding hands to see how the battle was going…

Miria and company were almost there, but the extremely weak youki he could sense was attempting to kill the Awakened One. The yoma was not expecting the attack from above, and she managed to sever only a few strands of hair before the Awakened One counterattacked, shooting tentacles at her when she landed on a rooftop. The hanyoma sliced others and freed a pinned hanyoma that was much stronger than her, carrying her away from the immense yoma. She was clearly crying. "…don't want to die! I can't get away!"

The smaller Claymore reached up as if to comfort her, saying, "Mama…"

The weakest looked down as her, tears streaming down her face, "I'm afraid of you most of all! Why are you so much stronger than me when you're just a kid? This monster shows up and you fight her all alone! You've never been hurt before, and now you're all cut up!" Both clung to one another, weeping aloud.

"Oh, please. I think I'll level this town, just to get you to shut up." The Awakened One struck out with many tentacles toward the hanyoma – Galatea was pinned against the wall, warning them to run – and then Clare cut apart one of the eight legs that the Awakened One supported itself on. "What the?" Galatea's youki was equally confused; the deserters' youki had been suppressed so long that even she could barely detect it.

The tentacles cleanly missed the organization's warriors as Clare said, "This town is important to me, which is why I won't let you destroy it." When Agatha demanded to know who they were, she simply said, "We have no reason to give our names to one who is about to die."

"About to die? You can't just show up and start spouting off nonsense like that – "

Cynthia and Uma chose to hang back when the hanyoma lunged forward to drop Agatha to the ground, each of the seven attackers using their own skill mastered in the north to hack apart their limb of choice. The fallout from their attacks was that when she fell, Agatha's body crushed many of the buildings to rubble. Fortunately, the one that Galatea was pinned to was not caught in the crossfire, and Miria was able to cut her loose. The former Number Three was missing an arm and pierced through in several places, but other than that, she was all right. Miria asked about her injuries, but Galatea said that her eyes had been that way for a long time.

"?" That confused Ryoushi; he could sense nothing wrong.

"…have no reason to hold back against this foe." Miria whipped off her cloak as the rest of the hanyoma did the same, leveling her blade at the Awakened Number Two, and Ryoushi picked up the pace a little, sensing that this would be over fast.

"Strong…" Miata whispered.

"What?" Clarice was confused; the youki suppressants were still active, and so she could not sense anything.

"All of them are strong," Miata said matter-of-factly, "but two of them smell really strong. They surpass the others by far."

Agatha dissolved what was left of her Awakened body into tentacles – Ryoushi briefly wondered what was up with all of these tentacle Awakened Ones this week – and formed a massive body with it, replicating a human form, saying, "You'll get to die facing me in my true form. Not bad for a load of insects." She struck out with one arm, forcing the hanyoma to scatter while Helen said that she'd take off its head with the drill sword.

Tabitha, however, corrected their assumption. "She's lying when she says that this is her true form. The body we must destroy is just a decoration imitating human form inside the lower abdomen, but she moves it around constantly to prevent enemies from striking it. Its head is the weak point."

"Have you anything to add, God Eye Galatea?" Miria asked, "If this were a team, you'd be the leader of it."

"No. Just to save this town, Phantom Miria."

"Of course. No one else will die."

Ryoushi detected Galatea's surprise when the team leader used her new phantom to split Agatha's body in two at the waist, but the shocks did not stop there: Flora and Jean blocked attacks from the Awakened One to enable Deneve to cut the torso along its lateral line, and when Tabitha directed them to the right half, Helen used the drill sword to tear open the arm where her form was hiding. Clare attempted to decapitate her from behind while she was distracted, but Agatha dodged the strike, getting only a thin cut on her arm instead of a missing head. She hooked an arm around Galatea's neck and lunged back, threatening to tear her throat out if they came any closer. Miria demanded to know why she thought that a hostage would work, to which Agatha replied, "This wouldn't work if I was fighting regular warriors, but since you said that no one would die…"

Clare ignored the threat to Galatea's life and took a step forward, sheathing her sword over her back, "There's nothing you can do that will stop us from killing you."

The Number Three recognized Clare's voice then and asked, "I assume I am correct in saying that you can still use that technique from before, right, Number Forty-Seven?"

"Indeed. The power's dropped, but the accuracy's increased greatly." She sliced the Awakened One's arm to free her comrade, and when she commented on the unintentional hair cut, Clare replied, "I'll be more careful about it if that's what you want." She didn't give the Awakened One a chance to say or do anymore, simply cut her to pieces in the space of a second. It was then that Ryoushi and Kinatia entered the city through the western gate, "hearing" Clarice say, "Nine… Nine unknown warriors with claymores… are they the ones missing from the north?"

Cynthia stepped over to help Galatea regenerate her arm, and when Miria asked about the eyes, the stronger warrior said that too much time had passed for them to be healed, it depended largely on one's memory, and if she'd wanted to heal them, she would have done so long ago. Clarice picked up her claymore and pointed it at Galatea, shaking and crying, and Galatea said, "You can have my life if you want it, Dark-Hair. I've done what I needed to." Before anyone could react, Clarice slumped to the ground, crying harder.

"Why? Why do you have to say things like that? I can't kill you… not when you're not evil," she sobbed, "I don't know what I should do…"

Ryoushi and Kinatia entered the new courtyard just as Miria said, "Simple. Don't go back to the organization." The hanyoma darted over to her teacher from the Awakened One's side, kneeling to help Cynthia accelerate the regenerative process. Said Awakened One merely hovered on the edge of the proceedings, listening as the Phantom spoke with everyone. "That's really the only option you have," she told Clarice, "If you return and Galatea's still alive, they'll execute you on the spot, and saying that you could not find her is not a valid excuse."

"But… we'll…"

"Yes. They'll call you traitors and mark you for death. However, they won't be able to get their hands on you if you remain in Rabona; they know that the city is strict with its refusal to allow half-yoma inside."

"It's a temporary solution at best," Galatea said, waving her good hand, "The organization could take down this entire city if they chose."

"A temporary solution is all we need," Miria said, "because we've come to destroy the organization."

"WHAT?"

Galatea, however, took the news calmly and was not afraid to speak her mind. "That's a foolish idea. You're willing to fight the organization's current warriors to get revenge for the fallen of Pieta? And," she said, when Miria opened her mouth to say something, "even if you don't intend to fight the warriors, the organization will still dispatch _them_ to fight _you_. There is no way that hasn't occurred t you. And what about the yoma? Without the organization to create hanyoma, humans will just be devoured as before. The safety of the humans depends on us being created to fight them."

Ryoushi could tell that everyone was thinking the same thing that he was; the yoma couldn't be allowed to run rampant with no Claymore to stop them, but he trusted Miria to at least have an explanation for her plan. She sighed, then said, "All right. I'll tell you everything that I've learned. I was consumed by rage after the death of a friend, so much so that I decided to take revenge on the organization, but I quickly realized that in the organization's absence, what Galatea just described would happen. So while I was doing my duty, I began to investigate the organization, and at first I had no way of judging them. I slipped into the archives at headquarters and journeyed to the remotest edges of this continent, and in the southwest, I discovered a village that had seemingly been forgotten by the rest of humanity. They were shocked at my appearance and had never even heard of yoma." Ryoushi could guess what was coming and stepped closer to hear better. "So I came up with a hypothesis.

"Yoma… are created by the organization itself."

There were many sharp inhalations of breath, and Helen actually fell back onto her rear without even so much as a gasp of pain at the sudden impact. "That's madness," Galatea said, unsettled, "How could that –"

"We've all had our doubts regarding the existence of yoma; it's crossed our minds at least once. It was explained away so simply with the preying on humans, them being the greatest predators alive. The stories slowly became reality as those who could remember a time before yoma died off."

"That's just a wild supposition. There is no proof."

"There is. It's so close we didn't see it, something that we all carry." Miria pulled her sword from its sheathe over her back. "This claymore… isn't it a little much for just killing yoma? I've never seen one bent or broken, not even chipped. It's as if from the start, these were meant to be used on Awakened Ones or something even greater." She gazed down at the blade, continuing to speak, "I've been all over this continent, and I never once found the place where this metal was mined, and there are no facilities for processing it. This sword should not even exist on this continent."

"But-but does that mean it's not of this world?"

"Another example of how the organization manipulates information. Though countless ships have set sail, searching for other continents, they have returned empty handed, so people concluded that this was the only land. But there is another, and it is not peaceful by any means. That land is wrapped in constant war, but a century ago, all of the fighting nations came together into two alliances battling for supremacy. One side had allies in the form of nonhumans thought to be the descendants of dragons and quickly gained the upper hand. The other side, hoping to increase their combat strength, raced to develop a new weapon, and their research bore fruit. It was an infernal weapon _that changed humans into monsters_." She shook her head. "However, it was so dangerous that the weapon could risk wiping out its own allies. The decision was made to take research from the continent and contain it on a small island."

"But… that would mean…"

"Yes. This land is nothing but a test site for creating Awakened Ones."

All of the hanyoma from the north simultaneously turned to look at Ryoushi, who was standing stock-still in shock, staring at Miria with his mouth slightly agape, eyes wide with horror. He had pulled down his hood, letting them see his now very white features, and the wind whistled through the momentarily silent courtyard, rustling their cloaks and hair. The Phantom continued her narrative to draw attention from the child-sized Awakened One, "Originally they were sent onto the battlefields of the mainland as warriors with abilities far beyond those of normal men, and they were only allowed to unleash their full power when they were facing the dragons' descendants deep behind enemy lines. They would release their yoma energy, as we do, but for the males, unlike females, that energy was almost impossible to control. They went rampant almost instantly. Their birth came about as an attempt to create warriors that could fight the dragons' descendants on equal terms, but they were unable to return to being human or being warriors because their Awakening changed them so much. They were not even permitted to come back; they would have had to keep fighting until their deaths at the hands of the enemy, and most did. Because of the fact that when and where and how they Awakened could not be controlled, it was decided that more research was needed and continued it here, in hopes that they could create an Awakened One they could control."

Galatea's youki twitched in realization. "Alicia and Beth. They were able to cross their limits and come back."

"Yes, we heard, but they're twins, which means it's only a special case. But their connected psyches make an easy weakness to exploit; if the enemy finds out, it's all over." Miria nodded. "It's a milestone, but they're still far from developing a controllable Awakened One."

"You're very well informed," Galatea said, "How did you manage to learn so much without help?"

"I did have help. I can't give you the details, but there are no inconsistencies between what I was told and what I learned. This is accurate and all that I have learned up until now. But…" She turned to look at Ryoushi. "When you showed up with Kinatia in the north, I began to suspect the organization's intent, Ryoushi-san." Galatea visibly sat up straighter when she realized that he was there. "I believe that they were hoping to see if you were strong enough to be sent to the continent, once they knew that you could be bargained with. Perhaps, if you _had_ slain all of the Awakened Ones there, if we had returned from the northern lands…"

"…They would have captured me and shipped me off," he said bluntly.

"More than likely. But not without rigorous testing to see what gave you the ability to keep you human consciousness strong enough to control your yoma instincts." Miria sighed. "That means that if they find out that you are here, that you survived, they will stop at nothing to 'acquire' you for study."

"I have no desire to be picked apart on a lab table. I may be a defensive type, but even I can't regenerate like that." He padded over next to the former Number Three. "Long time, no see, Galatea-san." He helped the newly healed warrior to her feet, ignoring Clarice's whispers.

"No way… an Awakened One that still has its human mind…?"

"I supposed I'd sound crazy if I said the same, so I'll settle for 'you better not kill any humans while you're here, bastard.'"

He grinned. "Only if they try to attack me." He stayed at Galatea's side when she turned to Miria.

"Is there anything a blind woman can do to help you?"

"I'd like you to stay here and look after the dark-hair and the young warrior for us. It's unlikely that the organization will come for them so soon, but I have no doubt that you could handle it. The likelihood that they have developed someone of your skill is very slim."

"I'm not sure if that's true," Galatea said, closing her eyes, "but I'll take the compliment."

"Now… here's hoping the city is willing to negotiate with us."

* * *

While Miria was off making nice with the city, Flora and Cynthia backing her up, the other hanyoma were given all the food and drink they could possibly desire. Ryoushi merely sat in a corner of the tavern that their group had claimed, drinking water and declining food, while the others ate and drank freely. Helen, unlike the rest of her companions, was swiftly drunk and flushed with alcohol, and when she came over to bother him after Deneve, he merely flicked her forehead and set her toppling over.

His sharp ears picked up Sid saying, "I didn't think Claymores could get drunk," and Clare explained that they could wipe toxins from their systems at will, but it was a matter of personal choice. "And how much are you letting in?"

"About half. I have a natural tolerance, it seems."

Ryoushi sensed Sid's gaze on him. "Hey, Clare, I've been meaning to ask you. Do you make a habit of picking up strays? That's the second kid we've seen following you around."

"No." Clare took another sip of her drink. "Ryoushi is… different."

"Oh?" Galk seemed interested as well. "How so?"

"Because I'm a yoma."

Simultaneously, all of the hanyoma turned to give the utterly calm Awakened One an exasperated glare, while Galk and Sid simply looked shocked. "You've got a _yoma_ traveling with you?" Sid gasped, hand automatically flying to his weapon, before Clare rested her hand on his.

"If he was a threat to humans," she said coolly, "do you honestly think we would have let him live?" As the two soldiers relaxed reluctantly, she continued, "Besides, he's actually a Claymore that turned into a yoma a long time ago, back when there were male Claymores."

"Semantics," Sid said, waving a hand, "How did you all meet up? And how did he convince you not to kill him right off the bat?"

"All of us here were sent to kill off a large group of yoma gathered in the north, and the organization you call 'Claymore' set him to help us. They ordered us not to harm him, so we didn't." Something appeared to click with her. "And there's something I'd like to ask you two."

"Right. That kid that was with you last time you were here, Raki, wasn't it?" He smiled. "He came through a year ago, asking around about you. When we said we didn't know where you were, he moved on."

"I see. So he's still alive…"

"Yup. Had a little kid with him, a girl. When I asked, he said that relatives dumped her with him. He didn't seem to want to talk about it, so I let it drop."

Galk spoke then. "It has been seven years since you were here, and he's a grown man now. He did say that he was revisiting the places you two went. He headed west after he left here. You're both alive, so you're bound to meet again."


	8. Chapter 7: The Silver King

Chapter 7: the Silver King

"So you feel it, too?"

Ryoushi did not even bother to open his eyes when Galatea joined him on Rabona's southern wall as night fell. He was not at all surprised that she had come to see him – translation: keep an eye on him – nor at her question. "Yes," he replied, "Isley is fighting for his life in Musha. Whatever is attacking him must be very powerful or very numerous, but I am not sensing any youki from it."

"A bera for your thoughts on the subject?"

"I'm thinking that we need all the help we can get."

She looked at him sharply. "You intend to go and assist him…?"

He nodded, arms crossed, stance firm. "Isley may be an Awakened One, but he honors life-debts. If I defeat his attackers, he _will_ join us, if only to clear that debt." As he spoke, wind chose that moment to howl ominously through the city, sending chills down the pair's spines.

"Sou ka…" Galatea returned to "gazing" south with him, both easily sensing the incredible flares of youki from Musha, and when the Awakened One truly focused, he could feel the almost-undetectable tremors that races through the ground from Isley's fight, meaning that he must have been relatively close to the border. "They're negotiating for food for you, you know," she said after a few moments of silence, acting as if she had just declared that the sky was blue.

"_WHAT?"_ Ryoushi looked just as shocked as she had felt when Miria had asked about death-row criminals that they would be willing to feed to the Awakened One. "I-But-They-"

"I know; I was surprised, too. I suppose Miria wants you at the top of your game when we begin our campaign against the organization." Another flare of Isley's youki made them twitch, but the battle seemed to be over; his aura settled and "dimmed."

"Even so, she's practically condoning the murder of people she's worked so hard to protect. It's madness." Isley appeared to be chasing his opponent, but he gave up after fifteen minute. The male sensor opened his eyes and murmured, "Shall we see what horrendous disease has caused Miria to take leave of her senses?" He turned away from the outer wall and began leaping over the rooftops, headed for the cathedral where he could sense all of the claymores' youki gathered together. After a moment, Galatea came bounding along behind him, and they alighted at the foot of the immense church; the Awakened One took a moment to admire the skill of the craftsman who made the stained glass windows before he pushed open the doors and went inside, the hanyoma trailing behind him.

The other Claymores were grouped up just inside the door, talking quietly with Father Vincent, but they all fell silent when Ryoushi entered. The child-sized yoma promptly walked right up to Miria and glanced at Father Vincent out of the corner of his eye, noticing that the man had turned very white when he saw the Awakened One, and several of the guards had distinctly reached for their weapons.

Ryoushi immediately took all of this in and flicked the Phantom's forehead with unusual force, turned, and walked back out, leaving shocked humans and semi-humans behind…

* * *

Later, they found him snoozing on the roof of one of the city's larger taverns, curled up against the warm stones of the chimney, and they woke him reluctantly so he could hear the terms and conditions of Rabona's providing food for him. He would not hurt innocent civilians – "That's already against my policy," – and he was permitted to nonlethally defend himself against human attackers. "Aww, man! I usually eat them so they don't attack me again…" They were willing to feed him if it meant that their success would one day lead to them being free of yoma forever; Miria had told the priests and guards about her revelations, and Father Vincent had wisely said, "A few sacrifices now for the safety of all in the future is necessary."

He accepted their decision and then asked Miria permission to head south into Musha, hopefully to sway another to their cause, their campaign against the organization.

"I'm almost afraid to ask…"

"Last night, Galatea and I were standing on the south wall, 'watching' an unusual battle in the southern land; unusual in the sense that one of the parties was an Awakened One and the other had no youki at all. If I can defeat these mysterious killers with no youki, Isley the Silver King will owe me a life-debt that his still-present pride will force him to repay. If I ask, he will help us take down the organization. If you tell him what you have told us, he will go above and beyond what his pride requires; he does not like being toyed with and manipulated any more than the next person, save he is more violent about his retribution." Ryoushi was firm in his resolve to retrieve the Silver King, so Miria told Helen and Deneve to go with him when he went south.

"The rest of us," she said, "will wait here for your return."

Not far into their journey, they came across a group of Awakened One hunters, and because they were almost to their destination with time to spare, Helen and Deneve settled down to watch the "show." Ryoushi listened as they critiqued the style and skills of the hunting party versus their Awakened opponent. "There were several crucial faux paus, but the worst was that they were drawn into the pool. That caused them to lose their only advantage: their speed, and this wasn't a very good team to begin with. I believe that only the single digit has experience fighting Awakened Ones, which means that the rest must be in the thirty-to-forty range, confirming the thought that the organization is low on manpower." Deneve shook her head. "The better warriors must be off doing more important work- Hmm?"

"A while ago," Helen snickered, "you said the same thing, and then we were saved by Number Forty-Seven."

"Don't remind me."

"Hey, if she took on Miria, who would win?"

"Miria has the skill, power, stamina, and speed, but Clare has limitless, explosive power; that power's uncertainty is both strength and weakness."

"What about you, Ryoushi?" Helen leaned back to meet the Awakened One's eyes. "What do you think?"

"I concur with Deneve's observation, and I would like to add that she is essentially a hotheaded kid. She's powerful but childish, and the youngest of us all in years as well as maturity," he said as he watched the group of hunters below. It was then that the Awakened One struck down one of the Claymores, knocking her unconscious rather than killing her; the single-digit leader provided enough of a distraction to where it was unable to get a good strike in. Deneve commented that they were skilled to have fought as long as they had, be their defeat was inevitable once they were lured into the water, as the single digit was the only one to have ever fought an Awakened One before.

"Oi. Ryuu-chan."

"Mmm?"

"If we go help them, are you gonna stop us?" Helen was once again looking at him upside down as she leaned back to watch him. He closed his eyes and snorted.

"I believe I can safely say that I have more in common with you than that thing."

"Miria said not to get into pointless fights, Helen. And to avoid the organizations current warriors. However, don't expect me to sit back and watch if you go gallivanting off to help her." Deneve was utterly serious when she spoke, and Ryoushi rolled his eyes, knowing that Helen would not be able to resist when her blood was up.

"Heh. Maybe Clare's not the only hothead running around!" The hanyoma with the extendable arms leapt from the cliff top down into the water, shouting, "I'll take down this teme all by myself, and to hell with what you and Miria want!" Using her incredibly elastic limbs, she spun up her right arm to use the drill sword on the yoma's arm, shattering it to pieces and shocking both hunter and hunted. Deneve jumped down after her, hacking off one of its other three arms, and the moment after she came down, the pair was forced to make the single digit join her comrades in the land of unconsciousness.

She managed to dodge, however, and their second attempt was interrupted by the Awakened One slamming its fists down in the places where they had been. 'Clearly, not one of the more intelligent ones,' Ryoushi thought as he watched the organization's warrior hurl Helen out of the way of the next attack. She had assessed the fact that Helen and Deneve attacked with their bodies, not their swords, and thus deduced that they were not enemies. Dietrich, Number Eight, was who she introduced herself as, and Helen quickly made up some bullshit about being part of a covert group of warriors for the organization. Dietrich just ignored that and asked for help in getting the unconscious warriors away from the battlefield.

"Not one for social graces, is she?" Helen commented before they moved to do just that. Deneve and Helen returned to the top of their cliff where Ryoushi had concealed himself in the trees, dropping their burdens at his feet before the twin-sword hanyoma flipped off of the edge, pushing off of one of the tentacles that the Awakened One spat at her. With the extra force that the push provided, she was able to plunge both her swords deep into its face, piercing one eye but missing the other, and when it stuck at her with one if its remaining arms, she leapt back, letting Helen come in with her drill sword. Though she missed the main part of the head and almost got stabbed by one of the arms, Dietrich was able to hack off the arm and gain incredible height with a single leap off of its body. Saying something melodramatic that the hanyoma below didn't hear, she dropped and used the force gravity added to her strike to split the Awakened One in two.

Ryoushi took the opportunity to scout ahead toward the city wherein Isley was hiding from his unknown assailants, "listening" to the conversation behind him. "… organization to know of your existence, you'd better kill me now." 'So blunt… I like it.'

"You would rather die than tell a falsehood?" Deneve said softly, stunned at Dietrich's words.

"It's how I was taught. I don't know any other way."

"Mother... We'd be wasting all of that work we put in to save you if we killed you now," Helen groaned.

The regenerator hanyoma sighed and sheathed her blades. "You didn't try to fight us after you killed the Awakened One. That's enough for us."

* * *

"Fuck, fuck, fuck…"

"Helen, language, please."

"How come we can shake her off?" The drill sword hanyoma came to a stop in a clearing about two miles away from the town where Isley was trying and failing to do his ninja thing

"She's not as fast as we are, but she makes up for it in stamina." Both Claymores turned around as Dietrich joined them in the open space, straightening swiftly from her crouch.

"What's up, Ohime-sama? You decided to kill us after you came to your senses?" Helen put her hands on her hips, clearly irritated.

"I did a little thinking and realized that if you kidnapped me, I wouldn't have to report to the organization. That way, I haven't broken my oath, and you wouldn't have to kill me." Dietrich had very clearly thought it through.

"That's BS! And what could we possibly hope to gain from kidnapping you?"

"If that's how you want to see it, go ahead. I can always just follow you, and you can cut me down if I get in the way. I don't care. But…" Dietrich made a point of looking them straight in the eyes. "… A lot has changed in the south. If you've been holed up in the north all this time, you'll need a guide." At their surprised looks, Dietrich continued, "It was a guess; you don't have to tell me the truth, and I won't ask for it."

Deneve cocked her head, then asked, "You said that the south has changed a lot in the past years. How much, exactly?"

"Half the towns in the south have been wiped out," she said matter-of-factly, "and I highly advise that you not proceed any further south than here."

"WHAT? Half the towns? Who-? How-?"

"I do not know the whys and wherefores, only the results."

"What exists further south?" Deneve asked, her face the mask of calm that her comrade's was not.

"I don't exactly know. All that anyone knows is that a demonic _something_ dwells in Musha."

For a while, the two deserters followed Isley's youki, talking amongst themselves. "Half of the towns? _Half?_" Helen shook her head. "If that's the case, then we don't know if yours or mine are still intact. Maybe we should go see for ourselves."

"You intend to go, despite my warning?" Dietrich said as she walked a short distance behind the pair.

"Of course. That's why we're here, and we're not going to run with our tails between our legs at the first sign of danger. And we might as well find out what this demonic existence is while we're here. It could be whatever is hound Isley's every step, right, Ryoushi-san?" The two claymores emerged onto a cliff edge over the town that Isley was hiding in, Ryoushi already waiting for them there.

"Quite," he said, cocking his head as he gazed down at the collection of buildings in the valley below, "I believe that this demonic existence is what Isley was fighting two nights ago."

"What…?" Dietrich looked from hanyoma to hanyoma to Awakened One and back again. "You… are intentionally seeking out Isley of the South?"

"Heh." Ryoushi closed his eyes and chuckled. "Back when I knew him, he was Isley of the North, the Silver King of Alphons. Looks like not much has changed." He leapt from the edge, making his way down the steep slope toward the civilization, and Helen and Deneve followed, the former laughing joyously.

"Was…that… an Awakened One?"

* * *

"Wow. This place is so full of life; you'd never guess that Isley's like is living here." Helen peered around at the buildings, ignoring the now de-cloaked child that was disappearing into the crowd to find Isley. "Do you think we could stop and get some food? I'm starving."

"Only a short break, Helen. Ryoushi wants to move the moment these demons are dead." Deneve sighed and shook her head when her comrade bounded off to find a suitable food vendor, digging in her pack for some money to spend. The other hanyoma followed her through the crowd, not sparing a thought for their Awakened companion; Ryoushi was very capable of taking care of himself. When Helen abruptly tripped and fell, Deneve was instantly at her side, whispering, "What is it? What's wrong?"

And then she, too, was almost smothered by the incredible youki of the Awakened Isley. She managed to turn her head, saw him walking toward them from a side street, and felt panic swell in her chest. Where was Ryoushi? Why wasn't he there?

Isley stopped next to them and asked, "What's wrong? Is she injured?"

"N-no… My sister has a bad leg. From a childhood injury," Deneve said, hoping he'd buy it and keep moving.

"I see," he said, "Shall I lend you a hand?"

"No, but thank you for your consideration, sir. You needn't worry about us." The hanyoma felt her own body begin to shake in involuntary fear, the quakes almost visible from where she crouched next to Helen.

Isley took another step, saying, "Take care, then." Both claymore sighed in relief as he passed them by, but abruptly tensed in fear when they sensed another surge of youki from Isley, directed at them. They would not be able to move fast enough to dodge it; it was going to obliterate them in one second –

The attack was stopped by a child's hand, and Isley's eyes widened in shock as he beheld Ryoushi's tiny form halting the attack on the claymores. The smaller Awakened One had replaced his blade and pulled on his cloak to hide the claymore, but his hood was down so that the Silver King could see his face. "Isley," Ryoushi said as if he had not just stopped some three thousand pounds of force with virtually no return force, "we need to talk."

* * *

"You said we needed to talk," the Abyssal One said when they regrouped outside of the city, Dietrich a nervous observer, "so talk. Why are you here?"

"We are here for you, Isley-san. We wish to make a deal with you. We will help you kill these demons hounding your every step if you help us defeat the organization." Ryoushi's statement caught the attention of both of the newcomers, the Silver King shocked and Dietrich horrified. "Before you interject, let me finish. We will defeat these demons in advance, but we would like you to return to Rabona with us to hear what Phantom Miria has to say and at least consider helping us. And you, Dietrich-san, are welcome to follow if you wish. But you should know that we have a very good reason for wanting to destroy them."

Isley dropped his shoulders in relaxation, releasing tension that the Claymores didn't even know he had. "You'll kill these Eaters for me, and all I have to do is hear what she has to say? Tempting."

"If you do decide to help us, you will be provided with a meal once per week until the organization is gone. The city of Rabona is collecting heinous criminals for meals, as they have also been alerted to the situation."

The Awakened One's silver eyebrows shot into his hairline. "Is that so?" Dietrich looked even more horrified than before, if that was possible. "Very well. I accept, and if I like – or don't like, I should say – what I hear, I will join you against the organization." Ryoushi nodded, smiling, and turned to face the faint sounds of passage through the woods, drawing his claymore as Helen and Deneve did the same, the group of fighters moving to a more open spot for engaging the Eaters.

"Tell me about these Eaters," Ryoushi said, "What is it about them that makes them into so much trouble for one like you?"

"They have no youki, but they are warriors, or something like them. Their heads are their weak spots, but unless you hack off all their limbs, they keep moving to protect their heads. And they eat any flesh that's torn from my body, making it difficult to regenerate rather than reattach any lost limbs. Unless all of them are killed this time, these things will be the death of me." Isley shifted his left arm into his bow as Ryoushi assumed the stance for his own form of the Quicksword/windcutter. The smaller Awakened One did not even have time to warn the others of their arrival; the first of the Abyssal Feeders thudded down onto the ground before them, followed by five others.

"Don't move," Isley growled under his breath, backing away carefully, "Attack when their backs are turned to you. Try for their heads, but I'll take care of it if you miss."

Utterly silent, Ryoushi unleashed a windcutter on the nearest of the lot when it was behind him, cutting away all of its limbs and lower torso, and Isley caught its head with an arrow as it fell, helpless. A handful of the other Abyssal Feeders lunged for the tiny Awakened Being, but he ducked below their strikes, spinning and taking off the four's legs before going for another windcutter to the upper bodies, careful to keep his flesh out of their reach. Three went down, and he decapitated the fourth as it tried to rise on newly-healed legs before turning back to Isley, who was now in his Awakened form. The remaining six were gathered around him, three on the ground healing themselves while the remainder stood by and "watched;" Ryoushi made a brief gesture to Helen and Deneve, "We'll take them out while they're distracted with him." The pair nodded and assumed their own fighting stances, preparing to strike on his signal; Helen would take out the legs with her extendable arms, Isley and Deneve would hack off the arms, and Ryoushi would take care of what was left.

Dietrich was able to do nothing but stand by and watch as the foursome obliterated the last of the Abyssal Feeders, and though Helen got an eye pierced by a misfire from one of the dying feeders, there were no other major injuries, aside from those Isley already had. The Silver King himself reduced back to human form and collapsed back onto his butt, saying, "Okay, you win. You're Number One."

Ryoushi exhaled through his nose and shook his head. "Those things knew how to fight you, not me. And I'm simply fast enough to take them out in one fell swoop. So what should we do with the bodies?"

"_Throw them in the river."_

'Yes, that's definitely a theme with us.' "Alright, we'll dump the corpses in the river and head back to Rabona. We got who we came for."

Three days later, the three deserters, Isley the Silver King, and Tracker Dietrich arrived at the city of Rabona, all taking to the roofs to reach the cathedral where the other hanyoma were gathered without getting stopped by the guards, and they landed in the courtyard with ease, no one having noticed their passage save as a few fleeting shadows over the streets. Miria was waiting for them outside, so Ryoushi immediately demanded, "Where's Clare? I didn't sense her youki when we entered the city."

"She went west," the Phantom replied, "to look for that boy of hers, Raki." She turned to face Isley and bowed slightly. "Isley of the South."

He dipped his head in return. "Phantom Miria. Ryoushi tells me that I should hear what you have to say."

"Indeed. But first…" She looked over at the other unknown hanyoma. "...who are you?" There was no malice in her tone, merely curiosity.

"I am Dietrich, Number Eight. I was curious as to why Helen and Deneve were traveling with an Awakened One and searching for the Silver King, so I decided to hear what you have to tell, also." She was shooting nervous glances at Isley, who took it all in stride, ignoring her apprehension with a calm that drew the others into serenity as well. Miria nodded and gestured for them to follow her inside, opening the cathedral doors and heading off down a shadowy hall toward the personal residences of the church's guests. They entered a large room with a table and chairs around it, the other claymore already seated, along with several priests and Father Vincent. The humans visibly paled when the two Awakened Ones entered the room and took their places at the table, one of the guards pulling up an extra chair for Dietrich. And so the Phantom began to explain all over again what she had learned, deduced, and had confirmed by the source.

"Now that I think about it," Ryoushi grumbled when she had finished, "I can probably guess who this informant of yours is."

"No way…" Dietrich gasped, "The organization… makes the yoma?"

"Jackasses."

Ryoushi burst out laughing at Isley's response, and a few of the humans snickered along with him, not expecting such a "human" statement from such an inhuman creature. During Miria's shpeal, one of the mousing cats had come up to the table and was rubbing against the Silver King's ankles, making him sneeze. "I'm allergic to cats," he grunted when the wolf-dragon took the cat over to his own chair to pet, and the discovery that they had more in common that they thought significantly relaxed the tension in the room, enabling them to begin negotiating with one another for the organization's demise.

"Wait, Rigaldo was a lion, a big cat. So how was he one of your minions?"

"I made him stay on one side of the northern lands, and I was on the other. When meeting was unavoidable, I ate a _lot_ of mint beforehand and stuffed some of the leaves up my nose."

* * *

A/N: The last little bit was added for StuffedLion :D


	9. Chapter 8: Meeting with a Monster

Chapter 8: Meeting with a Monster

At the organization's headquarters in the eastern land of Sutafu, the council was meeting to decide what should be done about Isley. He had vanished from the southern land of Musha after mysterious people had taken up arms and slain not one, but _all_ of the Abyssal Feeders. The organization would now have to start from scratch to defeat him, but they had other plans to move forward with.

"Numbers Twenty-Eight, Thirty-Five, and Forty-Two have returned to headquarters," one of the handlers said as he stood before the council, "Number Eight is the only one that remains unaccounted for."

"And the target?" one of the councilors asked, "Its corpse?"

"It was there. According to the evidence, she had help but landed the final blow."

"It seems that these unknown parties have been quite busy; first LaCroix in the west, and now here. What do you think, Rubel?"

"Haven't the foggiest," the traitor said, "I apologize for being so useless; I was quickly knocked unconscious at the time. This is but a small matter, however; our first priority should be Renee's retrieval."

The elder shook his head. "You need not worry about that. A new group of Abyssal Feeders has been released in the west to act as trackers. The Abyss Feeders in the south were defeated by a similar unknown party, and Isley escaped. We cannot afford to give them time to get to Riful as well, so we are dispatching Alicia and Beth to take care of her."

* * *

Miles away from the location where Alicia and Beth were moving out, Ryoushi's head snapped around, sensing their tremendous youki on the move. However, because it was so large, so strong, even the ordinary claymore could sense it and stood up from the table, Isley following suit. The group came to a stop on the cathedral's roof, sensing that which the humans could not; Alicia and Beth were moving west at an incredible pace, and it would not take them long at all to get there. "They're going after Riful," the Silver King stated calmly, "in hopes that you will not give her the opportunity to join this little soiree."

"Actually that doesn't sound like a bad idea."

Ryoushi turned to stare at Miria. "You're insane," he declared, "I invited Isley to join us because he's my friend and two Abyssal Ones are better than one – even if I am one unofficially."

"I'll make it official, dammit…"

The smaller yoma ignored the other's statement in favor of saying, "We have no way of knowing if Riful will help us if we defeat Alicia and Beth for her. Or the Abyssal Feeders that I suspect the organization is using to track her."

"We could at least make her listen, Ryoushi. All we have to do is hold Alicia and Beth off long enough to explain, and if she refuses, then we can leave and let her deal with them. If she accepts…" Miria shrugged. "It will be to our advantage. And three Abyssal Ones and better than two."

"I feel I must agree with Miria on this one," Galatea said, "provided that immediately after everything is wrapped up in the west, we proceed east to the organization, so as to limit the loss of life that goes to feed the Abyssal Ones." She gestured to them, and Isley nodded his consent before he sneezed explosively, bringing a ripple of snickers from those present.

"So what will we do, then?" the smaller yoma asked, "Catch up with Clare, tell her what's going on? Maybe get her to search for Riful while she's looking for Raki?"

"Perhaps. We will see when we get there. Galatea-san, I do not wish to be a bother, but-"

"You wish me to remain here and look after the young warrior and the dark-hair in your absence?" She smiled at the others' sense of surprise. "Gladly. I would only hamper your speed and get in your way on the journey to Lautrec."

"Jean, I hate to ask but could you do the same? Your technique is not the easiest to prepare in battle." The hanyoma agreed, and Miria nodded her thanks and turned to the others. "I'll only be able to give everyone half an hour at most to get ready, but if there are any who wish to stay behind, feel free to speak up at any time." Tabitha did; fifteen minutes later, Miria, Helen, Deneve, Flora, Kinatia, Isley, and Ryoushi set out from Rabona, headed west as fast as they could possibly go with the Abyssal One still healing, which was still an impressive pace. Dietrich had chosen to return to the organization, despite Miria's words, but she had assured them that she would not fight them when they attacked in the east on account of the fact that the organization had ruined too many lives for such a thing to continue.

The two Awakened Ones kept together at the fore of the squad, talking softly under their breath with the unranked hanyoma. What they were speaking of, the others could only guess at, but…

"What do you think, Kinatia-san, of Miria's plans for Riful? Perhaps an ulterior motive?" Isley asked as they ran, "She could be planning to kill all of us in our moments of weakness immediately after the organization is toppled. Or she could be planning something else."

"Priscilla."

Ryoushi's single word almost stopped the other two in their tracks, and Kinatia gasped, "W-what?"

"Priscilla," Ryoushi repeated, "After the organization is gone, the yoma birth stopped, the only things left will be Awakened Ones, who are essentially just more powerful yoma. But Priscilla is a monster of an Awakened One; if she got it into her head to take over the continent, the only way to stop her would be for all of us – Abyssal Ones, hanyoma, and humans – to join forces, or even to convince some of these dragons' descendants to help us."

"Couldn't we use her to destroy the organization?" Isley asked, "Then turn on her?"

"If what you said is true, about her regression to childhood and memory loss, it's likely that she will be too unstable to be of any use. The fact that Riful could sense how powerful she was, was the only reason that she did not attack you immediately after the fight with Luciela." Ryoushi swung under a weak looking branch and jumped back up into the canopy. "And I'm sure that Clare would not appreciate Priscilla joining us."

"And Clare is…?"

"The hanyoma that we're looking for. She traveled with Teresa of the Faint Smile for a time before Priscilla decapitated Teresa in the fight that resulted in the former's Awakening. Teresa was one of the late Number One's in the organization; she died perhaps a decade or so ago." Ryoushi changed course slightly, and the others adjusted to follow, sensing that Alicia and Beth were behind them and had just crossed into Toulouse some hundred or so miles behind them.

"Should I be insulted at the slur on my former Number?"

"Not at all; I was simply stating a fact. You are obviously not dead; I was referring to those who are." The small male visibly perked up. "We're approaching the border between Toulouse and Lautrec," he called loud enough for the others to hear, "but Clare is almost dangerously close to Riful's youki. Both of them are in close proximity to another far stronger youki that has been suppressed into virtual nonexistence."

"How strong are we talking? Like, Abyssal One strong?"

"Priscilla strong, but I can tell it's not her. She's in the west somewhere, but this is something else entirely. Oh!"

"Ryuu-chan? What is it?"

"There's another Claymore there, closer to Riful than Clare. It's one of the organization's warriors; Riful's youki is almost masking this hanyoma's. I think that she's healing herself. Hmm? Well, well. Looks like Dauf is still shacking up with Riful; he just reverted to Awakened form and is attempting to engage Clare. She's evading rather well…"

"…dumbass is always ignoring my instructions!" Riful was snarling as she stormed up to berate Dauf for Awakening inside the castle. When she finally reached him, she instantly wrapped some of her tentacles around his neck and stopped her, demanding, "What do you think you're doing?"

"There were three women in black outfits," Dauf stuttered, tugging slightly at the tentacles around his neck in an attempt to prevent Riful from strangling him on accident, "and one of them got inside!"

Riful hmmed thoughtfully as she pulled back into her fully human form, looking at the hole that Clare had cut in the wall to make good her "escape." It was then that the female Abyssal One pulled off her jumper and tossed it to Dauf, saying, "Take care of my clothes, I don't have many left. Go downstairs and make sure she isn't escaping." As Dauf scrambled to obey, she said, almost to herself, "I happen to have met these invisible women in black before…" She split herself into her Awakened form even as she spoke, "reassembling" herself outside the castle's walls, "… and still owe them a favor."

Clare was hidden in the forest a short distance away, muttering about how though she was glad to have lured Riful out of the castle, she was not expecting the Abyssal One's Awakened form. If she so much as twitched out of cover, she was done for. However, the universe seemed to have other plans; it was at that moment that the captive claymore's youki abruptly diminished down to the point where it was unable to be detected by any who were not supersensitive to youki. Riful believed that her captive had escaped, told Dauf to rip her limbs off if he found her, and the male promptly yelled back that she was escaping; he couldn't catch her, not in a hundred years. The Abyssal One snarled and let loose a barrage of blade like tentacles that decimated the forest around her, giving Clare the cover she needed to enter the castle.

Ryoushi could sense that something else was guiding her, though, and the closer they got to Riful's location the more instinct screamed at him to turn back until finally he was forced to halt and drop to the forest floor. Priscilla was on the far western edge of his range, more phantom than person, but there was something just as terrible in the bowels of Riful's castle, making him require a moment to be able to force his body to move. Isley was shivering slightly, the only sign of his tussle with his innate sense of _wrong_ as they came closer and closer at a slower pace. The small yoma's chest was beginning to constrict; Clare was close to, interacting with the …_thing_… and it was responding, beginning to awaken and Awaken at the touch of her youki. The hanyoma was strangely still, but the thing had drawn her in; in microscopic flows, their youki were intertwined. Their minds were touching.

He was repulsed by the feel of the youki of the thing. There was no emotion to be read, only a singular desire for destruction, and the clear intent that said it would use any means to bring about this goal. They were still some miles away from Clare's location, but the Awakened Ones were feeling extremely skittish. Their unsettled demeanors were inspiring the same in the hanyoma travelling with them, and it was but a moment later than Clare's youki disappeared almost entirely as the _thing_ was fully Awakened, exploding out of Riful's castle and up into the sky like an attempt at an angel's ascent to heaven. Ryoushi recoiled and toppled to the ground when the air displacement reached them, but he managed to stop himself from fleeing by reminding himself that Teresa had asked him to look after Clare, who was now in the belly of the beast, both literally and figuratively.

Isley grabbed him by the neck of his cloak to prevent him from being blown away entirely and anchored him firmly to the soil with his own weight, muscles flexing restlessly, and he growled into Ryoushi's ear, "If I had known that this would be my fate, I'd've taken the Abyss Feeders any day."

"That's the funny thing about the future; you don't know much about it until it's the present. Having second thoughts?"

"Not enough to turn back."

Dauf and Riful were interacting near the creature, and the Claymore and Co began picking up the pace again; Alicia and Beth were closing from behind and would soon overtake them, and they could see Abyss Feeders bounding through the trees a short distance away, searching for Riful. The organization's Number One and Number Two stopped briefly for reasons unknown to Ryoushi, but they continued on moments later, too fast for him to get a very good lock on them; Priscilla was also reacting to the new Awakened One's presence, but he could only get fleeting glimpses of her youki. She was keeping it suppressed rather skillfully, but it was no match for him. He could not read her emotions, just her location, and she was in a town even further west of the massive being.

Clare, Cynthia, and Uma were right in the middle of it all; Clare actually inside the beast, and the other two far too close for comfort. Riful had realized why Renee had fled when she had but said that she would have been much more generous it the captive hanyoma had actually told her about the full scale of its powers. Then she corrected her statement, saying that perhaps Renee had already been robbed of any chance of survival the moment Riful took her captive. Ryoushi could feel her fleeing east and ignored her presence the way he would ignore the children who watched him at his forge back in Intore. They were getting closer; he could see the monster over the trees now, wearing the facsimile of the statue of Teresa and Clare, and he gritted his teeth, pushing himself hard as he possibly could without releasing his youki.

Clare was splitting herself from the thing when they arrived at the immense clearing the fused form created, her youki and mind becoming her own again as it lost its control of her distinct personality; she refused to allow herself to be caught up in it. The beast itself was releasing something else in the process; her claymore and clothes, which she quickly donned. She, too, quickly realized what form the beast had taken, and by using Clare's form as a scale, Ryoushi was able to determine that it was _really fucking __big_. Helen and Deneve swiftly changed their course when they sensed Cynthia and Uma releasing youki nearby, the latter missing a leg; Helen was having trouble regenerating her eye.

Riful was a short distance away, but the Abyss Feeders – and Alicia and Beth – were going to get there first. At least the Abyssal of the West would get a taste of what would happen if she did not accept their help. Actually, two were attacking Dauf first, in their attempt to get to Riful, chewing off his hand, then attacking her, tearing off one arm and retreating to a safe distance to begin to devour their prize. The Awakened One won the battle, however; her tentacles split their heads wide before they could react, their bodies crumpling to the ground. Six more were already scaling her boyfriend's body, a few others hovering just out of his reach, "watching." She was able to kill four of them, but one ducked and the other leapt, landing on the Abyssal One and preparing to bite down before Ryoushi killed it with a windcutter, alighting next to the girl on Dauf's shoulder.

"You…" she said, but he had already gone, joining Flora in her battle against the remaining five. The Feeders had been trained to protect their heads, not think, and so they never suspected that the windcutting of their limbs would lead to their decapitations. Both swift-blade users were moving such that only the last foot of their claymores were actually slicing and dicing Riful's foes; the rest of the swords were acting as a space barrier, putting more distance between them and the Feeders. No one had any desire to repeat Helen's experience with them.

The last of them was slain in a combined strike, and the whole of the group came to stand before the girl, flanking Miria who had taken point. "Riful of the West," the hanyoma said, "we have a proposition for you and your boyfriend."

"Oh?" She cocked her head, genuinely interested. They had met once before, when the hanyoma were rescuing the organization's warriors, and now she was curious as to why they were offering her something when they had been attempting to hinder her before. "All right, let's hear it."

Miria told her a condensed version of what she had told Isley and the others about the war and continent, as well as what had brought them all here to see her, then said, "I'm sure that you can already sense the approach of Alicia and Beth, the Number One and Number Two of the organization. They are twins who were made with the same yoma; they share one mind. As such, Alicia can Awaken and return to human form; it is this that gives her the power to rival Creatures of the Abyss such as yourself and Isley-san. It is also because of this that I fear you might not be able to defeat her alone, so this is our offer: we will provide insurance, fight with you to ensure that you are the victor without dying, if you will help us topple the organization. A power as great as yours is absolutely necessary against them."

Riful smiled and said, "Flattery will get you everywhere," before she put a finger on her chin in a childish "thinking" pose. "Alright, I accept. We will help you."

'Does anyone else think that this has been too easy…?'

THUD. THUD. Alicia and Beth alighted in the clearing, calmly taking in the sight of the shredded Abyss Feeders, the hanyoma and Awakened Ones grouped together amidst their remains, and the twins began ignoring all of the others the moment they laid eyes on Riful. "Begin Abyssal hunt," Alicia said monotonously, and released her youki, her arms and hair morphing into nasty-looking blades, her body still remotely resembling that of a human. Alicia lunged; Riful turned her hair into its tentacle-blades and attempted to land a strike before she reached her. The organization's weapon merely cut them to pieces with the help of the rapidly-shredding smaller blades on the outsides of her sickle-like arms, and Miria dropped from above, putting the full force of her weight behind the attack and knowing that Alicia would dodge –

Isley was there to intercept her launching a small flurry of arrows at her while Flora came at her from over Dauf's head from the opposite shoulder that Riful was on, Kinatia coming up from the ground below with a sorta-kinda-but-not-really drill sword. Alicia dodged and blocked even those simultaneous strikes; however, it was all smoke and mirrors. Ryoushi was now using a technique similar to the one that Number Five displayed, dragging his sword through the earth to increase the force behind it. His strike was not at Alicia, but at Beth, whose concentration slipped as she was forced to dodge. The momentum of the attack and the weight of the Claymore sword pulled the much smaller yoma around full-circle and enabled him to attack again from a different angle, trying to split her from left shoulder to right hip. Beth blocked this time, and Miria shouted, "Keep her distracted, Ryoushi; Alicia's speed is dropping!"

The Awakened One snarled and sheathed his blade to attack with the windcutter; Beth was forced to leap back out of the way entirely, incapable of reaching enough speed to block all of the strikes. She was trying to focus on holding Alicia's consciousness, but it came at the price of her speed; Ryoushi would not give up and followed her every move with one of his own, hounding her like mosquitoes terrorized residents in midsummer. Never let it be said that he would not dedicate himself to a cause once he started down the path. Riful began helping him with Beth, reverting to her Awakened form and launching blade attack after blade attack at the "lesser" twin; Isley had also Awakened and caught Alicia's attention. He was now warding her off with the help of the other Claymores and Dauf, the latter of whom was not much help at all.

Clare was off of the fused being; he could detect her properly now. She was saying something about the organization's Numbers One and Two, but he was unable to catch it with how he had to focus on the flow of Beth's youki. The beast attacked her, but she dodged; the thing opened its mouths and began to "spit" out some kind of long tendrils, which eventually connected together to form one large, Halo-like circle around and slightly above their heads. There were spikes forming on it, and after a moment he felt the surge that indicated an attack, flipped with a back handspring out of the way. For the briefest of moments, everyone stopped, bringing to life the saying "the calm before the storm."

And then all hell broke loose as it began to rain projectiles. They struck indiscriminately, landing in uninhabited countryside and the population centers of nearby towns, injuring young and old, innocent and guilty alike. Nothing but destruction could exist in its range. Riful, Dauf, and Isley took some damage from the projectiles, as all three were in their much larger Awakened form and were unable to dodge fast enough; the much smaller hanyoma and Ryoushi were able to evade the attacks. Some of the long needle-like objects went far enough out that they impacted in the town that Priscilla was in, but Ryoushi didn't care.

The projectiles began to mutate, then, forming female hellcats similar to Luciela's Awakened form. These strange, Awakened entities began to advance on their position and Clare's, who had been joined be Helen and Deneve a short time ago. Cynthia and Uma had fled the battlefield during the firing. Clare had shredded one of the thing's arms when it tried to attack Helen, and they were now blocking strikes from long, whip-like blades from the thing's own body. Deneve brought both her swords down in an attempted decapitation, but the blades only bit into its flesh. The broken area shot three, much smaller projectiles into Deneve's arm, and she retreated, knowing that her double swords would not be enough. She blocked further strikes before feeling something strange and looking down at her arm.

The smaller projectiles were consuming her flesh, spreading through it like some kind of Parasite – she ripped off her arm without even thinking about it and hurled it and the sword it was holding at the hellcat. The blade penetrated, but it was too shallow; Helen came from behind and decapitated it with a drill sword, retrieving Deneve's claymore as she did so. She crowed her victory –

Right before it pinned her to the ground. Without a head.

From the gap where its head would have been, projectiles nosed out and prepared to fire. Deneve warned about them, and Clare interceded, using her windcutter to block the objects as they were fired. Some were sent spinning off into the air, others redirected around Helen, and still others reflected back into their source. The headless hell cat wavered for a moment, then collapsed to the ground, unmoving. When Helen asked, Clare explained about the hell cats, and Ryoushi passed along the information to the others around him, reading Clare's lip movements. He turned back to attack Beth –

She wasn't there. She was pinned against a newly made cliff, one of the immense projectiles embedded in her stomach, and Ryoushi's eyes widened in horror as it began to draw from her body to create its own. He lunged forward, severed the majority of it from her, but it was already too late; Beth began to Awaken even as her twin "rejected" her own Awakening to make way for her sister's. The Infection mutated her body into something like a hell cat's with some of her twin's characteristics, and she instantly formed some long black blades from her body to tear apart her environment.

The merged Luciela-Rafaela being was already preparing for another shot, and Alicia was still going at Riful and Isley like there was no tomorrow, which for her, there might not be. Beth was long gone, having fled for other climes a short while ago, so Ryoushi turned his attention to her remaining twin just in time to see her go over her limits. 'Beth is fighting something that requires her to use too much youki; Alicia can no longer hold her back! But what could…?' Abruptly another youki caught his attention, almost lost within that of Luciela-Rafaela, concealed particularly close to Beth's; the same monstrous aura that it was when born into the world of the Awakened ten years ago.

"Priscilla," Ryoushi gasped, struggling to hide his horror, "Priscilla is here."


	10. Chapter 9: Half Awakened

A/N: Just thought you'd all like to know that I consider yoma aura and yoma energy two different things; yoma energy is what the hanyoma use to fight, and yoma aura is what the use of that energy puts off, what the trackers use to hunt their "prey." They are referred to collectively as youki or yoma power.

* * *

Chapter 9: Half-Awakened

As the Number One joined her sister on the battlefield, Ryoushi knew that even those as strong as Alicia and Beth could not hope to stand against Priscilla for more than a few minutes, much less defeat and kill her, so he shouted, "Miria, let's grab Clare and get the fuck out of here! The moment Priscilla's done with Alicia and Beth, she's going to go after her or Riful!" All of the hanyoma present instantly looked horrified and began cleaning and sheathing their blades, the two Abyssal Ones and Dauf returning to their human forms as they, too, prepared to flee the western lands for Toulouse, and the smallest of the yoma whirled around to locate Clare within the chaos of the merged being's second firing. She was there, along with Helen and Deneve; the exhaustion in their youki clearly showed that they had been fighting the hell cats that had consumed Beth, and Alicia was–

The youki of the Number One was abruptly silenced, and Beth's screamed with the loss of her twin, with rage at the one who killed her, her auditory cries reaching their ears despite the distances separating them from her; Ryoushi barely had time to hiss, "Shit," before she was gone, too, her body shredded beyond repair. Priscilla was a monster, defeating both the Awakened Numbers One and Two without even too many injuries. They healed almost instantly, and she turned away for Riful, aiming for Clare's youki, which she would feel as Teresa's; Clare had taken Teresa into herself, and as such they had the same youki signature. That would not – would never – change.

"She's going after Clare!" he shouted, already on the move, thinking, 'Not again. Not like Teresa. Please, God, if you listen to creatures like me… don't let this end like that. And don't let her be stupid enough to attack Priscilla outright.' With all of the training that he had done in the north, his speed had drastically increased from what it had been before, even without his youki, and Miria was the only one who could truly keep pace with him; Isley was slowly falling slightly behind, Riful right alongside him, and the other hanyoma were dispersed in between them and Dauf, who was acting as the de facto Caboose of their little train. Ryoushi shredded a hell cat spike that was headed for him as Flora moved in between them and Luciela-Rafaela to cover their approach, using her windcutter on all of the parasitic spikes headed for their group and no more, trying to conserve her strength.

Priscilla was speaking but he could not focus on the flow of youki through her, not with so much going on around him, but whatever she said must have angered Clare, because she lunged forward without a thought, attempting to kill the much-stronger Awakened One. "Fool!" he shouted, putting on a burst of speed and reaching her location just in time to sweep her out of the way of the foot that Priscilla tried to bring down on her to pin her in place. His lips curled up off his teeth, making him seem more intimidating than the female Awakened One when he snarled at the now-sitting hanyoma, "You idiot! What are you doing? Teresa was the only one who treated me like a human; why in all the blazes would she want you to throw your life away trying to kill her if she did something like that?" He jabbed a vicious finger in Priscilla's direction, who opened her mouth to say something before Ryoushi rounded on her. "And you! Shut up before you say something stupid, if you haven't already!"

She looked mildly affronted but said nothing, so he turned back to Clare, anger slowly burning itself out. "Clare, you have people here who would fight by your side, no matter what. Even if you intend to die here, you're not going to face her alone. And you're not the only one who lost something that day, brat."

The hanyoma's eyes widened as she lost control over her youki, receding back to a normal state, a single tear sliding from her eye as she realized the truth of his words; he had trained Teresa, become her friend. He felt her loss just as keenly as she did; he was just better at hiding the pain. She then caught sight of the other recent arrivals, Dauf puffing along in the background to keep up with Riful, who was now standing between Isley and Miria. Flora and Kinatia were next to their leader, slightly closer to herself and Ryoushi than the others, but still behind him, and Helen and Deneve were somewhere behind her, watching the exchange. It was almost painful to realize that all of these people – with the possible exceptions of Riful and Isley – would miss her if she was gone, possibly more than she missed Teresa because they had had so much longer to get to know her, to grow to care about her.

"Who…"

Everyone turned to Priscilla, who seemed not to notice any of the gathering, save Clare.

"Who are you?" she asked, "I thought if I followed your scent, I would regain my memories, but since I have not…" She cocked her head. "There are not many choices available to me."

"Memory loss and regression to childhood," Isley said lowly, "It's a common symptom immediately after Awakening, but hers set in later. It appears to have lasted longer as well; nothing but an extreme jarring could change her state of mind now, but there's no telling if it would make her sane or not."

"Perhaps…" Priscilla continued as if she had not heard Isley; maybe she had not, "if I kill you with my own two hands, I'll remember something…?"

"Yeah, that would do it…"

Taking offense, Helen extended her arm to attack the monstrous Awakened One, aiming for her head, but Priscilla dodged and grasped her arm, intending to rip it off. Clare retaliated, not wanting any more friends to be hurt, and successfully sliced off her left arm before she was kicked back to earth, the force breaking up part of her shoulder and side. "What's this?" Priscilla said as she regenerated her arm, all of the other hanyoma and Awakened Ones coming to Clare's defense, Cynthia and Uma appearing from wherever they had been squirreled away, the former going to heal the injured party. "Why… are you working together with her…?"

All of those who still had them leveled their claymores at her, resigning themselves to a possible battle to the death with her. Alicia and Beth, Numbers One and Two, had been unable to defeat her, and even all of the organization's warriors combined would not be able to take her head. Possibly Miata, yes, but only if she Awakened and Priscilla held her human form in the battle; Isley, Dauf, and Riful had no intention of doing the same and instantly reverted to their Awakened forms, though Ryoushi did not.

"What's this?" Priscilla seemed not to realize that they had Awakened before, because she continued, "Once you cross your limits, you can't turn back." Clare lunged forward, pushing herself right up to her limit, just this side of Awakening, but Priscilla threw her aside with ease, where Miria flashed over to catch her and prevent further injury. "Boring. You are very boring."

Riful used the female's momentary distraction to plunge all of the blades at her that she dared, but they did practically nothing despite the fact that they pierced every part of her body save her head. Priscilla broke them with ease, and as she turned her attention to the three Awakened Ones, Ryoushi growled, "I apologize, but all who were ranked higher than Number Ten must retreat to a safe distance until we've worn her down."

"What? But we can fight! Miria said – "

"I know what Miria said, Helen, but she said you could defeat the organization's warriors. Priscilla… is in a class all her own, far above everyone else. Please… take Clare and run to the base of the fused being, but take care not to get too close. It cannot fire within a certain radius of itself, and you will be safe there. Just don't attack it." He pointed his blade in the direction of the massive being in the center of a virtually untouched spot of land. "You will be close enough to prevent Clare from deceiving you with the state of the battle but far enough away to prevent Priscilla from getting to you, too." He turned to look at them over his shoulder. "And I only said retreat until she's weaker. That doesn't mean retreat until we've killed her."

Helen reached back and grabbed one of the immense spikes that Luciela-Rafaela had fired and hurled it at Riful, calling the Awakened One's name as she did so. Riful saw and understood, cutting the thing so that when it fired its mini-projectiles, they were aimed squarely at Priscilla, providing cover for Deneve, who snatched up Clare and began to sprint away, Kinatia following close behind. The monstrous being extended her arm after the twin-sword user, but Helen launched another one. Deneve split it in two length-wise, and at the speed it was going, it fired scores of the tinier spikes just as the halves passed on either side of Teresa's murderer. The projectiles shattered out of her body, narrowly missing the Awakened Ones and Numbers Six and Eight, clattering to the ground as all but the monster began to pray to the goddess of fortune for help, just as Deneve had said they should.

Ryoushi could sense hell cats headed in the direction of the fleeing hanyoma but knew they could handle it. The real problem was in front of him.

* * *

Uma was the first to encounter the hell cats, having been separated from the others as she had, and managed to dodge the first few strikes from one of them, hacking off its arm. However, that meant that it fired some of the smaller projectiles at her, only one of which actually reached its target: her right arm's elbow joint. It immediately began to attack her body, taking it over, but she slammed one end with the handle of her claymore, sending it out the other side but rendering her right arm – her sword arm – useless. It was then, as she was about to meet her end, that Dietrich arrived, bearing a piece of cloth. "I will return the favor that I owe Helen and Deneve twofold," she said, calmly explaining her origins and demotion, as well as the reason for the cloth. "I brought them with me, since they seemed to have lost track of their target, save for this." She tossed it into the center of the group of hell cats just as more Abyssal Feeders emerged from the trees, following the scent that the cloth carried: no doubt that of Riful of the West.

The Abyss Feeders leapt onto the bodies of the hell cats, tearing with their bare hands at the enemies' flesh, and the projectiles launched at them did nothing but remove the limiter that forced them to eat only their prey, permitting them to start munching away at the hell cats themselves, and Cynthia arrived to start helping Uma heal as Dietrich began "battle shaping."

* * *

Meanwhile, Deneve and Helen had arrived at the forest's edge, carrying Clare, just as Dauf attacked Priscilla for injuring Riful, having been pierced accidentally by one of the projectiles that the Abyssal Ones' battle with her send spinning up into the air and crashing down. "Dauf!" the Abyssal Female called, intending on reaching out to stop or help him, but Ryoushi leapt up to grab her "arm."

"Riful. I'm sorry, but he's beyond saving." He held her arm as she – as all of them could do nothing but watch as the now-mindless former Number Three tried to beat Priscilla into the crumbling earth; he was stronger now, but not strong enough. Ryoushi felt the flare of Priscilla's youki as she reverted to her Awakened form and shredded Dauf's right arm to ribbons, leaving nothing but a stump.

"You… are in the way…" the Awakened monster said, "and all those who get in my way should just disappear."

Dauf roared and punched her with his remaining arm, slamming her through a cliff, but she extended her fingers and shattered the arm and shoulder, saying that she shouldn't spend time fighting such weaklings. What was left of the Number Three apparently resented that comment, because he snarled in fury – real or imagined – and began pulling the poles into his body, using their mass to form new "hell cat arms," which Priscilla promptly declared disgusting. He struck out at her with them just the same, going for something like a punch, and she lifted a hand to stop the blow, realizing too late that the hell cat's mouth had opened to launch numerous medium-sized "parasite poles" at her. The poles pierced her body, but even the least sensitive of the watchers could tell that it did little damage to Priscilla's overall strength. With the other "arm," Dauf tried to punch her, but she dodged by leaping into the air, enabling him to launch more of the parasite poles at her. They penetrated her body and just as before had no effect, but he fired one of his own "posts" from his mouth. Priscilla stopped it with ease and hurled it back at him, but he had already moved to attack again.

"Wow," Isley said to Riful, "You got quite the catch. He's lasted longer against her than Rigaldo did."

Ryoushi snapped his head around to look at Isley. "Were you and Rigaldo sleeping together?"

"Uh, no. Why?"

"Okay, good. I used that kind of thing as insults against him in Pieta."

"He always did take offense to those kinds of things. Not to speak ill of the dead or anything."

Dauf's punch obliterated almost half of her body in one strike, showing the incredible power the "Infection" added to his form by the hell cat chomping away at her. She was already regenerating, however, and looked at her already almost healed right arm, watching as her wrist began to rebuild. She called a time out, but Dauf ignored her, unhearing, attacking again and again – and Priscilla remembered. 'Ah, yes… that which I had forgotten. Amidst the pain and ecstasy, a head and torso, separated… but no matter what I do, I cannot remember the face of the person. It is as if the void where the face was has been sucking away all of my memories, the more I try to remember it -!'

In an instant, Dauf's hell cat arms were torn from his body and landed, shredded and bleeding, so score of meters behind him, and Riful cried out in concern, all of those present leaning forward to see the resolution of the conflict, to see what would happen, and Priscilla spoke, "What an awful thing… To flood me with all of the other memories to erase the thing that I want to remember most… I guess that means it was a despicable thing. However…" she abruptly appeared behind Dauf, his body shredded beyond repair by her unraveled wings, "I suppose I can kill all of you before I go after _her_ one more time."

"What does she mean, 'one more time?'"

"Teresa. Because Clare and Teresa share the same youki signature, she thinks Teresa is still alive. And she's going to try and kill us first."

"Wait, what? How do they share the same youki-?"

"A story for another time; if we live, I'll tell it to you, now MOVE!" He shoved both Riful and Isley out of the way and jumped to avoid Priscilla's attack, having unraveled her arms to strike at the Awakened Ones, but she simply split the "tentacles" into three parts, sending the parts after separate Awakened Ones. Isley blocked with his shield and quickly galloped out of the way, Riful dodged in such a way that it sent the tips deep into the ground, and Ryoushi used a windcutter to protect himself in the air. Miria helped accelerate his return to earth, and Flora moved to their sides, her own blade sheathed in preparation for the same attack.

"What's this? Warriors working with yoma? That's…" Her youki level began to increase. "… against the rules!"

Ryoushi lunged forward to block the attack aimed for the three of them, Isley and Riful doing the same, but it was the smallest of the lot who noticed it first. "Everyone… I've been thinking back on Priscilla's history, and only once did she ever fight more than one person at once, though certainly not as many as we have here. We might be able to use that against her, but take care not to get too close." Cynthia and Kinatia had come back and were hanging around in the background, so he added, "And if you're injured, only go back to them one at a time; it would be too much of a liability to those still fighting if there were too many getting healed at once."

"Right." And then they all charged in, using their own weapons and forms of attack, Riful shredding with her blades, Isley morphing his right hand into a reasonable facsimile of his old blade to use, Ryoushi and Flora using windcutters like crazy to shatter anything sent their way, and Miria striking and retreating repeatedly with her Phantom skill, which was enough to confuse Priscilla, what with all of them coming from everywhere at once. Their chosen method of attack enabled them to damage her body severely, but no matter what they did, they never felt as if they were even coming remotely close to beating her. Miria and Flora were both slowly pushing at the limits of their youki, using everything to their advantage, as were the Abyssal Ones, but to no avail. Their wearing-down of her strength only forced her to use drastic measures that much faster, unraveling her wings and hands to strike with her full power against them. Riful's "body" support was gone in an instant, as was half of Isley's body (again), a hefty chunk of Miria's right leg, and most of Flora's right arm; only Ryoushi was able to continue fighting, having evaded the attack entirely because of his ability with youki sensing. Though Priscilla had an absolutely ridiculous amount of youki, he was much more sensitive than Teresa and thus able to detect the flow, regardless of how much there was.

"Go! Get healed quickly! I'll hold her off as long as possible!" he snarled, chopping the monster's next attack to nothing, focusing on conserving his energy for the long fight ahead; even with the both of them working at top speed, it would take Kinatia and Cynthia a while to assist all of them without their youki, and he heard Miria tell them to forget the suppression, it would do them no good if they were dead.

He blurred to his left, dodging another tentacled strike, and hacked off the ends of the fingers, forcing her to use up more youki to regenerate the lost parts; 'no matter how bottomless her strength seems, there's a limit to everything, even her,' he thought, managing to get close enough to brutally kick her in the face just as Miria rejoined the battle, 'the only question is: are we enough to find the bottom of her reserves? Once those run out, she's sucking her own life force, and that most definitely has a limit even smaller than that of her monstrous youki.' He performed an elegant back handspring, regenerating the two fingers that she cut off like the defensive type he was before charging back in to assist Flora in cutting apart everything sent their way. They were doing a fine job of it so far, and when Isley and Riful finally rejoined the battle after about a five to fifteen minute break, their ratio of hits-to-misses increased greatly, but that, as before, made Priscilla throw a momentary burst of everything she had against them.

As before, everyone but Ryoushi was injured even slightly, but this time Miria was able to heal herself and keep on fighting, focusing on being as unpredictable as possible. The Awakened One still had not released his youki, and the pressure, the urge was building inside of him, his inner beast screaming to be set free, to let it take down the monster before him; and what was worse was that Ryoushi actually thought that _he might be able to do it._ Even when he Awakened in front of Rubel, Galatea, and Kinatia, he had forced a limit on the amount of youki he could release, and the reason for his regression back to human form was because he reached that self-imposed limit. Ninety-six years ago, when he Awakened in the Northern Land of Alphons, he had been trying so hard to turn back that there was a possibility he had more strength yet untapped.

An attack aiming for his head suddenly direction, and he mentally thanked Kinatia for her intercession before he leapt into the hair, hacking off Priscilla's entire arm and shredding the wing-blades that whizzed in his direction, tearing off the remains of his cloak as he did so; it was meant to hide his appearance but was only hampering him now, getting tangled in his legs when he tried to move at almost-invisible speeds. Though there were fewer serious injuries that round, it took longer to heal due to the synchronizers' beginning weariness, and Ryoushi flicked away Kinatia's attempt to augment his still-suppressed youki with her own, thanking her for the offer but declining just the same; the others needed it more. The heal-fight-dodge/fall back-and-repeat continued for two more rounds before Cynthia and Kinatia were forced to begin oh-so-carefully drawing on Prisccila's seemingly-bottomless yoma energy to heal their comrades, but it was almost painfully slow going with the hanyoma; unless taken a pinprick at a time the Awakened youki risked sending their comrades over the edge, but for Isley and Riful it was almost no problem, just small signature conversion.

One the round after those, however, the regeneration became perilously slow, and Priscilla seemed to realize that if she defeated him then, their resistance would collapse, thus enabling her to pursue "Teresa." She redoubled her efforts against him, almost tripling the speed of her attacks, and Ryoushi's dodges and blocks became narrower and narrower as he began to struggle to keep up, still in human form. He was determined to only use his Awakened form as a last resort, but it was swiftly coming to that point; even he could not match Priscilla in his human form, only hold her off for a limited period of time.

The impossible happened then: he tripped backwards over the chunks of Dauf's hell cat arms, and Priscilla took the opening, lunging forward and bringing her hand back to plunge through his head –

'No! I don't want to die!'

"Ryoushi!"

-Her nails were almost touching his forehead –

'_I DON'T WANT TO DIE!_'

His yoma aura exploded outward around him, utterly unrestrained, sending everything flying back away from him, and Kinatia instantly noticed the quality difference between now and the time outside of Intore. The "texture" of his yoma aura – and quantity of yoma energy, tightly coiled within his body – was clearly not the same as it was before; it was so much stronger, there was so much more of it, like a hidden limit had been torn away as a dam by and immense flash-flood.

However, it was Miria who realized what had happened. "My God… before now, he was only half-Awakened…?"

The two Abyssal Ones and three other hanyoma turned their heads to look at her in an utter lack of comprehension. "…what?"

"If you think of Awakening as a cliff, all hanyoma are still standing on it, most a safe distance away from the edge. Half-Awakened hanyoma are much closer, standing possibly right on the edge. Half-Awakened Awakened Ones are over the edge entirely but are still hanging on to the cliff, and completely Awakened Ones are in free fall. When he first Awakened, he was trying to turn back, preventing himself from going completely over the edge as you two have. But now… he's effectively let go."

Even when he Awakened in front of Rubel, Ryoushi had been holding back rather severely. During his initial Awakening – one of only two times that he was pushed over the edge before Pieta – he was unable to stop the flow, but he was able to arrest it, limit how much he went over: just barely enough to Awaken his body, making him substantially weaker that the two Abyssal Ones. But, with eighty-nine years of training, improving, bettering, and seven extremely intensive years of the same, he had grown much stronger, strong enough to rival his Abyssal kin in his half-Awakened state. With an equal number of years suppressing his aura and energy –oddly enough, two completely different things – the "two" sources of yoma power had built and built within him, making his core change, and as the yoma power grew so did his "beast," forcing his mind to become even stronger to continue to hold it in check.

Now, with this Awakening, there were no limits, no repressions, no restrictions. The energy rampaged through his body even as his aura broke up the ground around him with its force, the Awakened One himself slowly climbing to his feet, claymore still in hand. His Awakened form lost all semblance of wolfishness; he was almost a pure dragon-being now. The only ways he did not resemble something like a Western dragon were that he carried his claymore, stood on two legs, and had heavily armored plates all over his body, forming a reasonable facsimile of a knight's armor. His neck had lengthened and thickened, face forming a true dragon's maw, and a row of spines ran from the crown of his head down his spine to the tip of his tail, where two blades made the end look like a trident. His wings were webbed properly now, and incredibly shark talons tipped his fingers and toes. His legs were entirely draconic, having grown another joint o each and gained length on the toes to maintain his center of balance. There were sharp blades running up his legs to his knees, starting out small but turning into two-inch-long curved blades on his knee caps, and there were similar arrangements on the outsides of his forearms and the outermost support spines on his wings. He had no horns with which to protect his head, but his hair had grown and taken on metallic qualities.

His brilliant golden eyes slowly slid open, slitted pupils contracting at the sudden increase in light, as everyone present stopped to watch and feel the birth of a creature whose strength rivaled that of Teresa's murderer.


	11. Chapter 10: Duel to the Death

Chapter 10: Duel to the Death

Any doubts about Ryoushi's intentions were laid to rest almost immediately, as the first thing he did was attack Priscilla. It rapidly became apparent that he outstripped _everyone_, even Priscilla herself.

"Eh?"

She did not even seem to realize that he'd severed her in two at the waist, but she swiftly reattached her lower half before attempting to dodge out of his way and out of his range. He pursued her with single-minded intensity, however, and the force of their auras colliding in battle was enough to wake Clare from her unwilling slumber where Helen was carrying her a handful of miles away. She vigorously shook herself, trying to clear her head of the grogginess, and the rubber-armed hanyoma set her down on a nearby rock, saying, "Jeez, Clare, I was wonderin' if you'd ever wake up."

The claymore pushed aside her throbbing headache and managed, "What's happening? These youki…"

"Ryuu-chan has Awakened and is fighting that one-horned 'Priscilla' woman," Helen replied, "Damn, they're strong." Even at that distance, they could clearly feel the immense collisions of youki, Ryoushi aiming for Priscilla's head and gut, but it was Clare who realized what he was doing. Despite the fact that she had a seemingly-limitless amount of youki, it took a lot more power to regenerate from vital-point wounds than it did limb wounds, and at a continuous pace like the one Ryoushi was using, it would not take long to wear her down to the point where she was sucking her own life force. The only question was how long was "not too long?" She closed her eyes…

Quicksword to the body – both arms and wings shredded, legs severely damaged; torso almost completely cut apart. Regenerated a second later, fingers extended to pierce the head – Ryoushi was no longer there. Instead, he was behind her, trying to do to her what she had been trying to do to him, but she unraveled her wings and managed to nick his fingers before he blurred away again. For all of Priscilla's power, she had none of the experience that the much older Awakened One did, and that gave him an enormous advantage, on top of his extreme sensory abilities, heightened through his Awakened state. Her fate was already sealed.

* * *

Ryoushi drifted.

He had no idea where he was or what he was doing there, but he was strangely apathetic about it; it was so blissful and relaxing in the void where he was drifting that he wished he could stay there forever. The darkness pillowed his form, feeling as comfortable as a cloud, and the air was just the right temperature to fall asleep in.

"…shi…"

He opened bleary eyes and peered around in the dark, barely able to make out a distant figure in the blackness.

"Ryoushi… my little Hunter…"

"Mom?" he whispered, squinting in an attempt to see her better as she walked toward him. She was exactly as he had remembered her before she died ninety-or-so years ago: tall for her gender, long brown hair that fell to her waist, and the most exotic blue eyes he had ever seen. He had his father's eyes, a deep flawless chocolate that made people smile just by looking into them. She smiled at him and knelt by his side, reaching out to cup his cheek. "You've grown so much, my little Hunter," she said sadly, "A man now, no longer my little boy."

"I'm a monster, Mom," he stated bitterly, looking away from her, "I became a hanyoma and then a monster."

She abruptly pulled him close and held his head against her chest, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and resting her head on top of his. "No matter what you are or who you become, you're always our son, our Hunter. And we're so proud of you." She tilted his chin so that he would look up at her. "You were the best, always in the top two with that Isley friend of yours, and after you turned into a yoma, you still were helping rid the world of evil. And you still had your human mind! Something none of the others can claim." She wiped away a tear that he hadn't realized had fallen. "You helped Teresa, she came and told us so in the afterlife; she was so grateful to you because the skill you gave her helped her meet Clare, and even now you're protecting her. And you've found love, of a sort."

"Love?" he asked, cocking his head, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Kinatia, Ryuu-chan. She loves you, even if she doesn't realize it yet. She doesn't think you're a monster, either, and I think that is a big plus."

"Mo-om!" He felt his cheeks heating. "You're embarrassing me!"

She covered her mouth with her hand and giggled. "That's what mothers do," she told him in mock-seriousness, "It's in our job description."

"Riiiiiiight."

* * *

Ryoushi's next attack slammed Priscilla through the trees on the outskirts of the small forest at the merged being's base; he swiftly healed his tail and lunged at her while she was getting back to her feet, tearing open her front with his claws while he darted invisible past. She spun to follow him as he bounded deeper into the ring of woods around the being's base; the instincts in temporary control of his body recognized the possibility of using the being against the Awakened One it viewed as having invaded his territory. He slowed himself enough to keep her attention on him but stayed far enough out of her reach that she couldn't hurt him, though he often cut down trees that collapsed on top of her and broke bones, harder to heal than cut limbs.

"Where are they – why is he leading her towards that thing?" Flora called to Miria while Kinatia reattached her arm, all of them hating the slow pace that prevented them from pursuing but at the same time knowing it was necessary; they dare not pursue the most dangerous Awakened Ones at anything less than full strength.

"I think… he intends to try and get Raphaela-Luciela to attack her. It might work." Number Six focused on Ryoushi's location to the best of her ability; Priscilla's aura was so intense that she almost completely masked the other Awakened One's now-low aura. "They've just passed Clare, Helen, and Deneve; at this rate we'll never catch up to them." She gritted her teeth – then a tentacle wrapped gently around her waist, Riful lifting her into the air as she did the same with Cynthia. Isley had picked up Kinatia and Flora, holding them in his now-normal arms so that the former could keep healing the latter, and Riful said, "Hang on!" Then they were speeding after the duo at a pace that seemed incredible for Abyssal Ones low on youki, attaining a pace that Miria could not sustain for long periods of time even with her youki, and for all the jostling that Kinatia expected, Isley was a surprisingly smooth runner, enabling her to continue. Riful held the two claymores well above the trees went they entered the forest, adjusting her tentacles so that they hanyoma were effectively sitting down while she carried them, and when Miria asked why they were doing this, she replied, "We all do what we must to survive. Ryoushi might need our help, all of our help, and if he fails to defeat Priscilla because we were not there, that means the end of all of us."

"Sou ka…"

* * *

"Yo."

"Rigaldo? What are you doing here?"

"Call this a 'near-death experience' or something," the GinGan no Shishio grunted while he crouched next to the sitting unofficial Abyssal One, appearing to look off into the distance. Ryoushi's mother had said goodbye, telling him that there were others who wanted to see him while his mind hovered on the border, and Rigaldo had shown up next. "I just wanted… to come and say thank you," he sighed finally.

"'Thank you?' For what?"

"Killing me." He turned to look at the other Awakened One. "You… never knew my story, I guess, but before I became a hanyoma, I was going to be wed to a girl named Lilith in my hometown, Sutrec in the west. People from both of our families had come to stay in our village, numbering about twenty, and ordinarily yoma wouldn't have touched our group. But… a temporary band of them – about fifteen, sixteen – was passing through, and they decided that our group was the perfect meal, plenty for all. To this day, I don't know how I survived or why they let me live; I just woke up on the day of the wedding, and everyone was dead, even my fiancée. But now, because you killed me, I've been reunited with her and my family, so thank you for that, I guess."

"You're welcome." Ryoushi said, a faint smile twitching his lips, before her frowned. "I think we now know why you lived, though."

"Really?"

"Yes. The organization – we think they're the ones making the yoma. They must have been told to let any potential trainees live."

"What? Those bastards!"

"Quite. I'm working with Isley and Riful and a couple of claymores to take the organization down. That way no one else will have to meet our fates."

"Good luck, then." The Silver-Eyed Lion King nodded to him. "What ever happened to that Priscilla bitch, by the way?"

Ryoushi frowned again. "I think I'm fighting her… or at least, my body is, anyway. I keep getting these brief flashes of me attacking her."

"Good luck with that, too."

* * *

The pair of Awakened Ones darted past the fleeing threesome without even noticing them or the fact that the trio had to scatter to avoid getting run over by the powerful nonhumans, Helen yelling, "Hey! Watch where you're going!" Deneve clamped a hand over her mouth to shut her up, and Clare began sprinting after the duo, making a strange "Mmooup?" noise when Riful picked her up as they raced by. They had done a brief pit stop to pick up Uma and Dietrich, the latter of whom had finished off the last of the escapee Abyss Feeders and was now being held by Isley and healed by Kinatia. Despite their speed, it was obvious that the two enemies were going to reach the merged being first, and at the request of Miria, the Abyssal Ones changed their course slightly in case whatever Ryoushi did to make it attack went straight out behind him; it would have risked hitting them as well.

Ryoushi launched a three-sixty Quicksword, and it hit Priscilla as well as the merged being, provoking a violent reaction from the latter. He leapt, dodged the tentacle strikes even as they shredded the forest to pieces, and three of them pierced Priscilla's body. "Tch," she hissed, "One thing after another." Much to everyone's – except Ryoushi's – surprise, she dug her fingers into one of the penetrators and extended her fingers through it, cutting it to bits but following it back to its source. Much of the externals of the merged being was destroyed in the attack, but the rest of it dissolved before their very eyes, leaving a form of horrors behind. What looked like hundreds of bodies of hanyoma had been mangled and twisted together, seemingly made of thick black tentacles woven together, and the thing struck violently, making the others believe that it was fortunate that they had gotten out of the way in time; it sucked the life out of the trees it touched as it aimed for Ryoushi and Priscilla, who had reengaged.

The male Awakened One spun out of the way with ease, but Priscilla lost her wings to the thing though they were regenerated almost instantly. "It sucks away life force…" Clare whispered just loud enough for them all to hear, "He knew. He's using it to wear her down even faster."

* * *

"Dacien?"

"Yo! It's good to see you again, taichou." The claymore gave him a grin and an informal salute before he flopped down in front of him, eyes bright. "It's been a long time."

"Indeed it has," Ryoushi said warmly, smiling at the higher numbered hanyoma, "And what did you get up to after we parted ways, you hooligan child?"

Dacien grinned and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, I got into some trouble for forgetting that I'd put some garter snakes in Rimuto-sama's bed, and then I switched the sugar for the salt so that Horka's cakes for the elders tasted horrible, and then – "

Ryoushi snorted in amusement and shook his head while his comrade went on about his inglorious pursuits after the wretched mission in the north, but he noticed the moment that Dacien fell silent. "Tell me," he said softly, simultaneously a request and an order to the lesser claymore.

The other looked away, unable to hold his gaze. "I Awakened… about a year, maybe a year and a half after you did, taichou. I was the bird that you killed in Intore."

Ryoushi's eyes widened, then softened sadly. "Oh, Dacien… I'm so sorry…"

"It's okay," he said with false cheer, "At least you kept me from hurting anyone else, and I've been reunited with my family."

Ryoushi cocked his head. "If you don't mind me asking, how did it happen?"

"The organization… just thought there was one yoma in the town that they dispatched me to, but there were five. I wasn't prepared, and they jumped me from behind, injured me right off the bat. I made the mistake of misjudging my limit, and…" He gestured; there was no further need for explanation. He sighed. "I did manage to kill them, though, and I caught your scent on the breeze. It was familiar, so I decided to follow it. The rest is history."

* * *

The male's claws tore open her stomach again as he raced past, using the confusion of the merged being's focus on Priscilla to escape unscathed, and there was a distinct slowing in the speed of her regeneration, a drop that they all noticed. Ryoushi renewed his attacks on her, as did the merged being, and they realized that he must have been using youki manipulation on it, a skill that he'd become surprisingly proficient at during their years in the north but rarely used. Because it had no consciousness of its own, it did not know how to escape his grasp, kept bumbling along under his control, incapable of learning how to break free (and it most certainly could have; it had the power).

Riful struck; Priscilla just barely managed to evade the blades aimed at her head, and the Abyssal of the West pulled back almost instantly, the merged being swirling to cover them while Isley set Dietrich and Kinatia down to launch his arrows at the monster beyond the black mass. It was a good thing that he could control the direction that they went in, as with the mass constantly changing shape, he had to redirect some of them. The hanyoma used their attacks to slip in and join the close-range assault; Ryoushi didn't even notice them, but he sure as hell would have if they didn't keep evading him whenever he raced by.

Helen was able to get a little more distance between her and Priscilla because of her extendable arms, but the others had to use either their Quicksword or Phantom to attack and leap away before Priscilla could strike were like wolves circling their prey as it began to die; they could feel her weakening now under their assault, but she still managed to catch hold of Ryoushi and began to crush him against her, making the other Awakened One let out an inhuman scream of pain and fury.

Clare saw her opportunity. While Priscilla was distracted, she began closing the distance between her and the monster, still circling so she didn't give herself away, but the moment she was in range from behind, Ryoushi seemed to realized what she was doing and seized a firm hold of Priscilla's midsection, making it look like they were hugging. He plunged his claws through her gut, ripping and tearing and shredding everything that he could reach with his arms crushed against his sides, and Clare once again focused her power into her right arm, reading the flow of Priscilla's youki to the best of her ability and responding only there with the Quicksword.

Her long-time enemy shattered in Ryoushi's embrace, her head and gut chopped into thousands of tiny pieces.

* * *

Ryoushi's mother had returned after Dacien had gone, and she was now running her fingers through his hair while his head rested on her lap. "Never forget that we're proud of you, my little Hunter," she whispered as the constant gentle tugging began to lull him to sleep, "We all miss you, and you've helped so many be reunited with their loved ones, saved others from a terrible fate. You are not a monster, Ryoushi…"

"…shi…"

He furrowed his brow slightly, then smoothed his forehead. That voice…

"…Ryoushi…"

Kinatia? Kinatia, what's wrong?

"Ryoushi!"

He blinked; sun blinded his eyes for a moment before they adjusted to the change in light. All around him were his claymore and Awakened friends, but Kinatia was at the forefront of the pack, looking uncharacteristically anxious. **"Kina…tia…?" **he whispered, his voice distorted by his Awakening. Instantly, looks of utter relief crossed everyone's faces, and several of them let out breaths that they hadn't realized they'd been holding. Ryoushi swiftly realized what must have happened – and collapsed to his knees in sudden exhaustion, slipping out of his Awakened form, noticing that Clare and Flora were shredding some kind of immense black _thing_ in the background before he passed out and knew no more.

* * *

A/N: I'm back~! For the moment, anyway. I pretty much know how the story is going to end from here, so my Halo fanfic is going on temporary hiatus until I finish this one up.

Ciao~!


	12. Chapter 11: Beginning Assault

Chapter 11: Beginning Assault

Ryoushi exploded out of his unconsciousness with a terrible snarl, instantly across the room from the sharp pain and strange sensation on his side, and his lips curled off suddenly sharp teeth, golden eyes gleaming in the candle light. Father Vincent obligingly held up his hands in a peaceful gesture, and the Awakened One calmed, recognizing both his scent and outline in the semi-darkness. He clambered to his feet and was momentarily disoriented at the sudden height change; he was thirty years old again. As he caught his breath, he touched his side, found fresh bandages there, and he focused his youki into the wound, sealing it almost instantly.

The priest smiled gently at him, saying, "The others were very worried about you. They're downstairs."

"Thank you, Father," he said a little breathlessly and followed the man out, pondering. Who knows how many days it had been since the fall of Priscilla and whatever Clare and Flora had been doing? Because of his introspection, he almost didn't notice the excess number of guards standing outside the doors to his room, but they stared warily at him as he passed. It was impossible to stay relaxed with so many eyes on him, and the muscles in his back tightened with readiness, tense as if expecting an attack. Nothing happened until he arrived in the main hall where the rest of the hanyoma and Awakened Ones were lurking to pass the time, and there were several sharp gasps when he entered the room, followed by what felt like a battering ram to his chest, sending him to the stone floor.

Kinatia was clinging tightly to his upper body, her face buried in his heavily-muscled chest, and he hugged her back. Friends were very rare in both of their worlds, and they were the first pair to bridge the gap between hanyoma and Awakened Ones; they had grown very attached to one another during their exile in Alphons, and it would have been better for either to permanently lose a limb than the other. "I was worried," she whispered.

"I can tell." He heaved both of them to their feet and reluctantly pried her off of him, turning to look at the others, who were staring at them.

The picture of utter innocence, Riful looked up at Isley and said, "Are they gonna get married?" Instantly the Silver King buried his face in the crook of his arm and started snorting with laughter, while Helen, Deneve, and Jean looked mildly disgusted. Clare obviously did not care either way, and both Miria and Galatea had identical thoughtful looks on their faces. The other hanyoma were gaping at the smallest Abyssal One, and Riful continued to blink innocently as if she had simply stated a fact.

Father Vincent looked a little green when he said, "Umm… Ryoushi-san – "

"Just 'Ryoushi' is fine, Father. 'You damn bastard' works, too."

That broke the ice, making them relax, and they settled around the table in the center of the room in a much lighter mood. "Okay, to business," Miria said, "Ryoushi, are you – um…"

"Hungry? Not right now."

"Alright then. Next order of business, the assault on the organization. I have Dietrich's word that she will get the trainees and the lower numbers who do not wish to fight out before we begin our assault, but I want idea for how we can actually go through with the attack. Yes, Ryoushi?"

"If Riful and Isley don't mind joining me in being bait, the three of us can lure the strongest of the hanyoma away from the organization; the elders would want our corpses for study and would go to any lengths to obtain them. We could injure the warriors to the point where they're unconscious and give them youki suppressants to make it look like we killed them if they have long-range detectors with even half Galatea's skill." He nodded to the renegade, who accepted the compliment. "The three of us could overcome the organization's warriors no problem."

"Isley, Riful, do you have any problem with that?"

"Not really. It would give us a good opportunity to get used to fighting together. I get the feeling that this is not going to be over for a long time."

* * *

"This is boring."

"Patience, Riful. We have to walk to Haren like normal humans if we want to slip in under the radar."

"Under the what?"

"Never mind." Ryoushi padded on ahead of the other two Awakened Ones, contemplating their reason for being. Obviously, they were intended to be weapons on the continent, in the war against the dragon kin, and just the thought was enough to send hills of foreboding down his spine. Exactly how powerful were these creatures if they really forced the hanyoma on the continent to Awaken in order to fight them on equal terms?

And the organization; Alicia and Beth could not be all they had up their metaphorical sleeves. What else could they possibly have in store? 'I'm getting the feeling that I should not be challenging the Power of Worse, here. Especially now.' He swiftly knocked on a nearby wooden post and ignored the odd looks he got from the other two, though he could have looked right back; Riful was now riding on Isley's shoulder the same way she had on Dauf's. Even though Isley probably objected to being used as some kind of transportation device, he said nothing, merely had rolled his eyes and helped her up.

"So what exactly is the plan again?"

"You were sleeping in the meeting _again_, weren't you."

"Maybe…"

"Okay, fine. We're staying Haren for tonight and tomorrow during the day, so that the hanyoma have time to get into position for the assault. We'll need to rest up a lot, as the moment the sun goes down, Miria's going to give the signal for us to flare our youki and hopefully lure out the remainder of the organization's warriors. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a few trick left up their sleeves, so be on your guard. It could be anything."

The rest of the trip to Haren was relatively uneventful, though Isley had a sneezing fit when he found a cat in his room and Riful freaked when it started chasing a mouse that had been hiding in her bed. Ryoushi merely shook his head at hem and sighed before going downstairs to ask about dinner, as was expected of travelers. They accepted their food but fed it to the animals roaming the streets, and Ryoushi collapsed into bed, still not fully recovered from his fight with Priscilla, no matter what he'd told Miria. The two other Awakened Ones did menial tasks around the inn until sundown, when they, too, retired.

Ryoushi slept until noon the next day and woke only because he felt the beginning pangs of hunger. He cursed quietly but knew that he would need to hunt to compensate for the weakness he still felt. To give himself time to… digest… he slipped out immediately and tracked the strong scent of sex to a brothel; rather than kill one of the girls who had potentially been kidnapped and forced into that kind of life, he devoured the brothel's owners and disappeared back to the inn where the other Awakened Ones were skulking in dark corners.

"Now I have to agree with Riful," Isley managed around a yawn, "This _is_ boring."

"Patience is a virtue."

"One that I don't have time for."

Ryoushi snorted before twitching his head to one side, eyes not looking at anything in particular. "Looks like you're about to get your wish, you two. We've been discovered."

* * *

"They're holed up here?" Rachel, Number Five, demanded of the sensor, Number Sixteen, Nala.

"P-Positive," the higher-numbered hanyoma stuttered, "Their youki is suppressed, but Isley of the South and Riful of the West are definitely in that town." She visibly relaxed when Rachel turned her attention back to the cluster of buildings at a crossroads, appearing to sigh in relief now that she was no longer being threatened.

"What do you think, Audrey? Think we can them one with the numbers we've got?" Rachel asked the Number Three, who was standing at the very edge of the cliff, the last sheer drop in the mountain range that protected the organization. She appeared not to hear the other hanyoma's question, lost in thought as she was.

'We were barely able to damage her the last time we fought her, and though Isley will be easier to hit, he must be proportionally stronger, too. And this foreboding sense, like a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye… what does it mean?'

"…drey? Audrey?"

"Huh? What did you say, Ray?"

"Do you think we can beat them?"

"… so long as we take out Riful first, yes."

"Then let's go!" Number Five immediately jumped off the edge and began sprinting toward the town, making Audrey sigh in exasperation and wave for the others to follow her before she, too, jumped. The run to the town was not a long one, but it was time enough for the two Awakened Ones to move away from the town and into an abandoned quarry. Along the way, Riful said, "We need to tell Miria-chan what's going on."

"I think she'll get the picture," Isley put out, "when we revert to our Awakened Forms. Or she might just get pissed and come here to beat our heads in for 'ruining her plans.' I'm sure either one will work for her."

"Easy, Isley. No need to be so depressing. At least, not yet."

Riful leapt off the male's shoulder and flared her youki, her seemingly childish form dissolving in a swirl of tentacles, and Isley sighed but followed her lead. Ryoushi declined the silent offer and remained in human form so s to better sense what was going on at headquarters while they fought…

…Miria's head whipped around when Riful's, then Isley's Awakened youki washed over them from their mini-camp hidden in the mountains on the opposite side of hanyoma's creation station; Helen sprang to her feet and shouted, "What are those idiots doing?"

"They're under attack," Clare said calmly, "About half of the remaining warriors left fifteen minutes ago."

The team captain sighed. "Then I guess we need to move now. Let's go." She was already pulling on her cloak and yanking her sword out of the ground, Clare, Jean, and Deneve doing the same, and though it took a minute for Uma and Cynthia to collect themselves, they were all ready to go shortly, running down the mountainside through mazes of boulders and heaps of stone taller than Isley in Awakened Form.

It was during that time that the medicine that they'd taken to suppress their youki wore off, enabling them to work more accurately with their ability to sense the youki in their environment. There were eighteen warriors remaining at the base and about twenty trainees, but it was clear that they were operating at less than full capacity. They arrived at the edge of the HQ and quickly took stock of the situation; all but a handful of trainees were panicking, and the higher numbered warriors were unsettled as well. The Awakened Ones were close enough to HQ to where everyone could feel their youki as they fought, though only the renegades knew that Ryoushi was there.

The Ghosts began working fast to injure the remaining warriors and fighting trainees to the point of unconsciousness and slipping the aura suppressants into their mouths, but they were discovered and a resistance organized. However, the warriors were no match for the Ghosts of Pieta and were quickly cut down one by one just like their comrades on the other side of the mountains. As they had with Pricilla, Kinatia, Cynthia, and now Uma hung back to heal any injures on the part of the Ghosts, as well as any potentially fatal wounds in the warriors of the organization, and they did rather well; all of the warriors were unconscious, and the majority of the trainees were either hiding or knocked out.

Now only a pair of trainees remained, their small shoulder guards indicating that they were close to graduating up to warrior status, and the very sight of them set Miria, Clare, and Kinatia on edge.

The trainees were twins. Could it be that the organization had created another Alicia and Beth? Miria was not about to take the time to find out; she raced forward and made to cut into one of the pair, but it was already too late. The one that Miria had attacked released her youki and Awakened, assuming a form that was far less coordinated than Alicia's but with some characteristics of the deceased Number One; plenty of blades and protective armor, but there the similarities ended. This twin had a long armored neck similar to a snake, and her legs had lengthened and taken on a tentacle like shape, her arm splitting into a multitude of blades.

The former Number Six managed to dodge out of the way just in time, but the attack kept on going; Clare cut it to pieces just in time, saving the frozen Uma from an unpleasant end. Jean quickly began winding up her drill sword as Helen did the same, and Kinatia drew her blade to fight as well; even if she could not take on the Awakened twin, she could use the human one to confuse the other.

* * *

Ryoushi's head snapped around unexpectedly, his attention caught by the distant battle, resulting in Audrey managing to get a strike in. She cut his shoulder down to the bone, and he kicked her away so that he could heal before sprinting over and soundly knocking her out with a swift rabbit punch to the forehead. He dropped to one knee to catch his breath, then shouted, "Hurry it up, you two!"

Riful harrumphed and obligingly rendered three of the four warriors fighting her unconscious as Isley took out the last one, both reverting back to their human forms the moment the last body hit the ground. "What?"

"The organization does have a trick up its metaphorical sleeves; there's another set of twins like Alicia and Beth." Ryoushi got to his feet but staggered slightly before he regained his balance. "We need to move; even though there are eight of them against two, it's the two that have the advantage." When he felt the twins abruptly switch who was Awakened, he said, "Yeah, the twins definitely have the advantage." A second later, he was making for the organization's headquarters as fast as he could go without using his youki, which would help him maintain his own advantage of surprise.

The other two hung back to make sure that all of the warriors were unconscious before following at a more sedate pace; their work in the endeavor was finished, and they were only following to see the end result of the battle between Ryoushi and the twins.

Said Awakened One topped the last rise between him and the organization and saw that all of the organization's warriors were unconscious, and the only one of the Ghosts still on her feet was Kinatia. She was standing bravely in front of the emotionless twins, her sword up in the ready position, a trickle of blood running down the side of her face; Ryoushi launched himself into the air, putting enough force behind the leap to bear him overtop of the beast when he came down, and he whipped out his blade, preparing to cut off the Awakened twin's head in one strike. She looked up in time to see him coming and dodged his attack, his claymore opening up a fair sized rift in the ground and his appearance startling all of the organization heads present; they were not expecting him to have remained allied with the Ghosts.

"Ryoushi," Kinatia gasped in relief when she recognized the soft burst of youki he used to heal the fractures in his legs that came about as a result of his hard landing. The Awakened One nodded at her but never took his eyes off the twins, jerking his head out of the way of a strike intended to pierce through his eye. Kinatia moved back out of range of the fight to heal the more severely wounded of their comrades. The twins leapt, he dodged and cut away part of one's body, which regenerated a second later. 'One is an offensive type,' he realized, 'and the other is a defensive type, and because the same yoma was used to make them, they share those attributes. The strength of an offensive with the regeneration of a defensive. Shit.'

He spun around to stop running and flared his youki to fifty percent, eyes flashing gold, blade snapping for the Awakened One's head. She was suddenly no longer "beyond her limits," her sword driving for his gut, and he used the flat of the blade like a springboard, landing behind her before blurring away as her twin attempted to attack him from behind. The first met him at his stopping point, but he sent her flying way with a sudden and brutal tornado kick, almost snapping her neck in the process and rendering her temporarily unconscious. The second of the twins lunged forward to protect her sister when Ryoushi sensed another youki nearby sprinting towards him with the intent to attack. It felt similar to the youki of the merged being (what had happened to that thing anyway?) but it was… different… somehow.

He spun around again and elbowed the attacker in the gut hard enough to send him flying before he jumped forward into a semi-handstand and kicked out with both feet, slamming them into the ribcage of the second twin hard enough to crack all of her ribs.

Wait-a-second – _him?_

Ryoushi flipped back up onto his feet just in time to see a man in unusual attire for a warrior stagger to his feet clutching his stomach. He was wearing some kind of armor similar to a claymore's over a skintight but light leather top and loose pants. His boots were almost identical to a hanyoma's, and though he had the aura of a warrior, he still smelled like a human, a scent that tickled at Ryoushi's memory. He ducked a strike from the conscious twin – a quick glance confirmed that the other was still out of it – and turned the downward momentum into sideways momentum, enabling him to stick out a leg and spin in an attempt to sweep the hanyoma's legs out from under her.

The male warrior had recovered by that time and leapt at him, clearly still not used to his abilities based on the way he overshot when Ryoushi sidestepped his rushing attack, and again his scent called to Ryoushi's memory…

_...can't believe that Raki could have stayed up in the north…_

"THAT'S IT!"

Both the female hanyoma and the male warrior were startled at Ryoushi's sudden outburst, and the male actually jerked back a step. 'That was why his scent is so familiar to me; Clare was carrying it on her when she returned from the cell here Raki'd been imprisoned, and since he was human, he doesn't know her scent or youki. That's why he doesn't know he's here!' Instead of voicing his thoughts aloud again, he pointed at Raki and said, "You! Boy! Your name is Raki, yes?"

"Uh, yes?"

A moment later, Ryoushi grabbed Raki by the collar of his shirt and hurled him like he was some kind of living projectile in the direction of the former Number Forty-Seven, shouting, "Clare! Missing something?"

The male bounced once and skidded to a stop four feet from the hanyoma, and she gasped, "Raki?"

The former human instantly looked to see who had called his name, and his jaw dropped once he recognized Clare. He scrambled over to her side as Kinatia painstakingly repaired Clare's shattered spine, the hanyoma unable to do it herself, and he grasped her hand, saying, "I never thought I'd see you again. After I got hit with those spikes, I thought I was a goner."

"Spikes? Shot by some cat-like yoma?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Ryoushi," she called to the Awakened One below, "theories?"

"Oh, any number of things," he bellowed as he did an elegant back handspring away from one of the twins, though the other was finally stirring, "if there was a strong enough force of will behind it, Raki could have overcome the instincts of the parasites. Since it was an Awakened One… thing… that infected him, he's probably just become something like a hanyoma, but with Awakened bits rather than ordinary yoma."

"Like the Abyss Feeders?"

"Yeah, except he's still got his human mind. Wouldn't advise pushing any limits, though – hell-o!" He spun out of the way of the now-conscious hanyoma's attack, the blades of her Awakened Form opening up a slash on his shoulder that healed over almost instantly. "Dammit – gonna have to kill these two to get them to stop, Miria!"

"So do it!" the team leader shouted as she fought to reattach one of her legs.

Instantly, Ryoushi channeled every ounce of youki he had into his right arm, knowing that the Quicksword was the only thing that would work against them because the other techniques that could took too long to set up; half of the Awakened twin's body was shattered in that single blow, but she did not cry out in pain as expected. Her wound began to regenerate right away, but she was incapable of movement, enabling him to move in closer while fighting off her twin. They switched Awakenings, but that let him dart toward the injured twin and bring his sword down on her neck like it was the blade of a guillotine, severing her head from her body. Instantly the other twin lost control of her youki, but Ryoushi used the temporary inaction all Awakening hanyoma had to shred her body beyond repair with another Quicksword attack, this one less powerful than the first but sufficient enough to kill her.

He dropped to one knee in exhaustion and heard Kinatia cry out in warning too late; a hand clamped a cloth dripping with chloroform over his mouth and nose, and he was only able to put up a token resistance before he fell into darkness, thinking, 'This is becoming all too common.'


	13. Chapter 12: Lesser of Two Evils

Chapter 12: Lesser of Two Evils

Ryoushi did not remember much of his journey, only vague images and words that did not make sense to his drugged-up mind. He swore he saw Dae bending over him once, and though he tried to fight, his limbs were like lead weights. Another time, he heard someone say something about waking before the scent of chloroform filled his nose once again. He felt the rocking of a ship, heard the sloshing of water, but he slipped out of awareness again.

When he finally did regain consciousness, he could feel no youki around him within a fair radius, not like on the island, and all of those that he could feel were Awakened Ones and something like them in the distance. No yoma, no hanyoma, just his "own kind," and for a moment he flailed in confusion. Where was he? Where were Clare and Miria and the other hanyoma and – and Kinatia? She wouldn't have let the others abandon or kill him, would she? What? What?

He sat up and gripped rough cotton sheets in fists that drew blood even through the cloth as he looked around his room, if it could even be called that. It was more like a prison; whitewashed walls, no windows save for barred openings at the very tops of the walls some thirty feet overhead, and those openings were much too small for him to even think of trying to fit through. There was only one door, made of the same material as claymore swords, with no handle and an opening at eye level and another at floor level; clearly meant to keep him in rather than others out. Not only that, but his leg appeared to have been shackled to the wall by means of a long chain, enough to let him get up and walk around but not to make it out the door still shackled. A quick yank assured him that the base was securely mounted and not going anywhere anytime soon.

The scrape of a key in a lock made his now-golden gaze snap over to the door, which cracked open. Dae walked in, and Ryoushi instantly knew that what he had seen had not been a dream; he had been taken captive. His lips curled off suddenly sharp teeth, but the research expert for the organization merely smirked. "I see you're awake," he said needlessly, "We have a proposition for you."

"**Oh? What makes you think I'm going to listen to the likes of you?"** Ryoushi made to get out of bed, to attack, but Dae stopped him.

"You really don't have a choice, you see. You will fight for us whether you want to or not."

"**Or you'll **_**what**_**."**

"We have your allies captive on the island. Refuse, and we will execute them one by one until they all are dead or you agree." Dae smirked coldly when all color drained from Ryoushi's face, eyes, face, and voice returning to normal as he involuntarily relaxed his hold on his youki. The Awakened One knew better than to say that they wouldn't dare, he knew them too well for that. They _would_ do it; it was no skin off their noses. They could always make more warriors.

"So that's it, then?" he demanded, suddenly irrationally angry, "Fight or you'll kill my friends? The lesser of two evils, is it?"

"Yes. Yes, it is." Dae's smirk widened. "You have three days to consider before I send the first execution order." He turned on his heel and strode to the door, knocking. The strip of metal covering the upper opening slid back, revealing a set of blue eyes before it closed again. The door opened, and Dae strode out, leaving Ryoushi alone to his thoughts.

There really only was one option. He could not have the Ghosts' deaths on his hands, especially not Kinatia's.

He would have to fight.

* * *

Dae returned three days later, a letter in hand, and said, "Well?"

Ryoushi lifted his head from where he had rested it on his knees and glared fiercely at the researcher. "I will fight. _But_ – I will not obey any orders that I think are beyond the scope of my power. I am not a god."

Dae agreed and laid down the rules for Ryoushi: there would be no attacking his handlers, as they would be sending weekly progress reports with a special code hidden in them to ensure that they were still alive. If one of them died as a result of combat, Ryoushi was to make for headquarters as fast as possible with the survivor so that the deceased could be replaced. His claymore would be returned to him, and his gear would be replaced as needed. He would be fed two prisoners of war before every battle, and he would travel with the main army but focus on the dragon's kin.

"Answer me this," the Awakened One said suddenly, "how did you create the yoma?"

Dae did not seem at all surprised that Ryoushi knew that the organization created the yoma and said, "We inserted yoma flesh into cadavers."

"And the first yoma flesh – where did it come from?"

"A slain Dragon Kin."

"Sou ka. They have youki, or something like it? Something I can sense?"

"So it would seem. But the unnatural union of human and inhuman flesh causes the desire for human flesh."

Ryoushi was silent for a moment. "When do I begin?"

* * *

The Awakened One ignored the human soldiers marching in the battalion to his right in favor of examining the landscape around him. It had very clearly been beautiful once, but the centuries' long conflict had ravaged the land more than its people. Every city's farmland was safely behind a twenty-foot-thick, thirty-foot-high wall, and all of them had some method of reaching fresh water without ever leaving the walls. The civilians themselves were happy and were required to produce one child per year until they were incapable of having children. Those who were still able were sent off to war, while those who were not worked in the fields until they died.

It made him sick that they were quite happy to do so.

A twinge of youki at the edge of his range let him know that an Awakened One was engaging a handful of dragon's kin, but he ignored it. It was no immediate threat.

Whispers of the humans reached his ears: "…one of the monsters to fight the dragon kin."

"I hear they eat human flesh."

"They transform into monsters; they aren't even human anymore."

"We're gonna die when this one loses control just like the others."

Ryoushi snorted under his breath, then jerked his head around; the Awakened One had been slain, and the surviving dragon kin was headed in their direction. He pulled his claymore from its holder, already moving on an intercept course, and he leapt, dropped just in time to cut off one of the three-fingered hands just as it reached for the commander at the head of the battalion. The dragon screamed in rage and took a swat at him, but Ryoushi dodged even as he got a feel for the differences in their youki by manipulating the other's. He cut off the other hand and used its arm like some kind of oversized walkway, focusing his youki into his arm as he did so.

His Quicksword did not hack apart its head like he expected, but it did slice open its throat so it would bleed out. Its body crumpled to the ground, and he plunged his sword through its eye and into its brain to kill it quickly. The sound of hoofbeats made him look up, and the commander of the battalion galloped up and looked him over before nodding his thanks and mustering the troops back into their lines, the humans having fled the moment the dragon's kin appeared.

Ryoushi watched him go silently before looking down at his claymore. There wasn't so much as a nick in the blade caused by the dragon's tough hide, which meant that it was either a very young dragon, one whose hide had not fully toughened, or that they expected him to cut down any rogue Awakened Ones that they came across. He harrumphed and moved on, following the battalion.

They met up with one of the main branches of the army three days later, and Ryoushi was told to join the other presently-half-yoma warriors camping on the edge of the plain where the bulk of the military was stationed. Most of them were a cocky bunch, felt that they were entitled to the temporary luxuries they were provided, but the other four were essentially defensive types and very scared. He immediately moved over to the small group and shoved his claymore into the ground, sitting and leaning against it like he belonged there. The crude hanyoma jeered at him and the weaker ones, but he simply ignored them, having long grown used to such words.

Eventually, one of the outcasts spoke to him. "Hello."

Ryoushi opened his eyes and cocked his head politely. "Hello."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Ryoushi. You?"

"I'm Lucretia, and these are Hidalgo, Fell, and Mikhail." She pointed to each hanyoma in turn, and they nodded when she said their names. "Why does you hair have color?"

"Because I have already Awakened. I was a 'successful,'" he used air quotes, "experiment, so they brought me in from an island way out to sea where they'd been trying to create controllable Awakened Ones."

The foursome gasped. "Really? But – but – how did you keep your human mind?"

"I don't know, but a few friends of mine had some theories…" They were waiting breathlessly for an answer, so he continued. "They think that I was far more attached to being human and thus had greater control over my youki when I Awakened. I was able to hold back enough to where my body went over the edge, but not my mind."

"When _did_ you Awaken?"

"Depends. Half or full?" At their confused expressions, he sighed. "Like I said before, I was able to keep my human mind when I Awakened initially, which is considered to be a 'half-Awakening.' I fully went over the edge maybe two weeks to a month or so ago in a fight against another Awakened One. I still haven't fully recovered all of my energy yet."

"When was this 'half-Awakening?'"

"Ninety-six years ago."

"That's – that – you're _old!_"

"I never would have guessed," he said with gentle sarcasm, "How have they told you to fight the dragon's kin?" He waved at the handlers' tent.

"They haven't. They just told us to go over our limits and attack." All of them visibly sagged in unhappiness, not wanting to lose their humanity.

Ryoushi sighed, cocked his head. "I can teach you how to fight them without going over your limits, if you like. If the handlers ask, I can jut tell them that I'm saving them the trouble of creating more hanyoma." They all looked hopefully at him. "Really, I mean it. We can start now, if you want." All four of them jumped to their feet, eager to learn, and he had them start on the basics that the trainees were taught in the organization, how to control the flow of their youki and such. Lucretia was light, quick on her feet, so he taught her what he knew about Miria's Phantom while they followed the army, and Fell had exceptional strength, was taught to wield two swords like Undine. Hidalgo was a skilled sensor, and though no where near the level of Galatea, he was able to learn her manipulation technique; his brother, Mikhail, was a good huntsman, so Ryoushi taught him how to use youki residue to track the dragon's kin and other yoma.

Three of the cocky half-yoma Awakened in the very next battle against the dragon's kin and were slain that same day, but the four hanyoma that Ryoushi trained a little were able to take down four of the beasts without going over fifty percent energy release. Though they were exhausted later, they had a small party amongst themselves, celebrating their kills, as well as Ryoushi's nine. They continued surviving battles and had a few more hanyoma join their group, but Fell was killed when a rampaging Awakened One stepped on him, and a new recruit, Cylla, was pierced through the eye and into the brain by a large and jagged splinter from a crushed trebuchet.

Such was their life.

Every day, every moment of every day, Ryoushi remembered his hanyoma friends on the island, remembered how his continued cooperation with the organization kept the blades of their guillotines from being dulled by their necks, and his memories of them kept him from losing himself to the beast within. He had no desire to protect the army that funded the research that created more like him, and though the mainland hanyoma were his friends, he was mostly trying to keep them alive to prevent others from suffering; an entirely selfish wish.

Yet he continued on…

* * *

"Get up."

The moment a foot nudged his side, he was instantly alert and looking up at the general who was standing over him, scowling in the dark. "Sir?" he asked as he got to his feet and sheathed his blade over his back, "What can I do for you?"

"Rouse your men and gather up everything you need to survive on the road for three days. You've been recalled to headquarters." Ryoushi blinked in confusion, and something of that must have shown on his face, because the general elaborated, "Our scouts have shown that there is a large troop of dragon kin and humans headed for HQ, and none of the human regiments are going to be able to get there in time to hold off the assault. You're being dispatched ahead of us to buy us time to get there."

The Awakened One nodded, moved to wake the others and prepare them for departure. They were on the road before sunup, their impeccable sense of direction guiding them to the organization's mainland headquarters, and along the way, Ryoushi had a lot to think about. Though other still-hanyoma would arrive, there might no be enough to satisfactorily defend the headquarters, meaning that there would be no more half-yoma to battle the dragon's kin. They would not be able to rebuild fast enough, and the war would end.

But on the enemy's terms. They could kill the men and rape the women, enslave the children and steal the livestock of innocents who couldn't help where they lived and never wanted to fight. If the war kept going, eventually there would simply be not enough to continue, and not enough of everything: food, gear, people, skilled leaders… They would have to negotiate for peace and end the fighting on their own terms.

As before, there really was no choice.

They arrived at headquarters three days before the enemy did.

Dae, Rado, and Rubel were there waiting for them, and all of the 'captains' reported to them while their teams joined the 'trainees' in reinforcing the citadel walls. Ryoushi was hard-pressed not to strangle the elders when he was brought before them. They all wore infuriating smirks when they saw him, and he audibly ground his sharpening teeth before delivering his report. His fists were firmly clenched at his sides, and he pointedly focused on a stretch of blank wall over Rado's shoulder rather than look them in the eyes. He and his team were assigned a position at the forefront of the fighting, as he was the most powerful weapon they had available in their arsenal. His team was terrified; they were defensive types that didn't want to die or lose their humanity, and he consoled them as best he could before the battle.

The enemy arrived at dawn, a full two divisions of fourteen thousand humans each and a platoon of thirty-six dragon kin. The organization had barely three hundred nonhuman warriors, and only a handful with any kind of training with their abilities; it was clear that there was going to be a severe drop in those numbers by the end of the day.

They met on the large plain at the foothills of the mountains where the organization's headquarters were hidden, and as most battles tended to be, it was chaos. The only thing Ryoushi could really do was slay every human that came into range as he sprinted toward the dragon's kin and took them down as fast as possible. He ducked, he dodged, he spun, he rolled; he pushed his body to its limits and beyond, holding himself in human form to prevent any energy from being wasted in his Awakening. Even so, he was exhausted when the enemy finally called a temporary retreat and collapsed into sleep almost immediately upon reaching his team's camp site.

Seventy-five hanyoma were killed that day, but surprisingly only ten Awakened. These were quickly driven toward the enemy, and they took out six dragon kin before they, too, were slain; Ryoushi's kills numbered fifteen, and the rest of the hanyoma combined killed three more, having largely focused on the humans in that battle.

Enemy reinforcements arrived daily, bringing in battalions of humans and a final total of almost a company of dragon kin; the enemy's siege lasted for a further four days before they were forced to retreat entirely, a grand total of fifty-six dragons having been killed by the Awakened One. Ryoushi collapsed out of exhaustion twice and consumed six prisoners of war each time he woke up, but he continued to fight.

'Kinatia.'

…_she loves you, Ryuu-chan, even if she hasn't realized it yet… doesn't think that you're a monster, either…_

* * *

Ryoushi's eyes had opened, his head turned before he was even fully conscious of the danger that his body was already aware of. Youki tickled at the edge of his range, and he rose without waking his team, pacing out to meet the Awakened One headed in their direction. It had sensed them passing through its claimed territory and was coming to kill them, thinking that they were a threat when in fact, if it had just left them alone, it would have lived a lot longer.

It was sensor, just like him, but it had no where near his level of skill. It attempted to trap him, just as he'd expected, between an impenetrable copse of evergreens and a river half a mile across, but he'd tricked it; he set up a series of snares to injure and weaken the Awakened One before it actually reached him. It was shockingly small for an Awakened One, barely six feet tall; Ryoushi himself was almost seven feet at the shoulder when he transformed.

It rushed him, he jerked to one side to dodge and cut it in half at the waist as he did so. He turned to look at the now-deceased Awakened One just n time to see it fall back into human form now that there was no longer youki running through its body.

It was Dante, one of the hanyoma that had disappeared during the siege of the headquarters, and Ryoushi knelt next to the body, brushing the other's vibrant blonde locks out of his face. Dante had been eight when he was made into a hanyoma, barely more than a child. The elder let out a sigh of sorrow and dug a grave for the dead one by hand.


	14. Epilogue

Epilogue

Five years after Ryoushi joined the war on the continent, his prediction came true: both of the alliances were forced to negotiate for peace. Fields had been ransacked, and there was not enough food or clean water on either side for them to continue fighting for very long. The Awakened One served as a kind of guard for the delegates from the organization's side, and the negotiations went through without a hitch, as he was slaying the assassins that came almost every night from and for either side; there were some extremists who wanted the war to continue, but the treaty was signed.

Reconstruction began, and the organization's research gear and notes were put to the torch, as were all living yoma. The remaining mainland hanyoma were permitted to help with the reconstruction, as they were far stronger and far faster than ordinary humans. Because Ryoushi had wings in his Awakened form, people were able to build whole roofs on the ground and then have him fly up with them to lower them into place.

Even with all of the help they received, it took over one hundred years for the last scars of the centuries-long war to vanish into nature. Bit by bit, records of the Great War disappeared just like their physical counterparts. The hanyoma an Awakened Ones who remained kept a low profile and avoided one another if it was likely to come to a fight.

Time marched on. Technology improved, civilizations grew and declined, wars began and ended. Though Ryoushi searched and searched, he never found Kinatia; the world is a big place. He did meet up with Riful and Isley, who'd paired off simply so they wouldn't have to fight over territory. They were utterly delighted to see him and were able to give him Helen and Deneve's last known locations, hopefully so he could get in touch with Miria. She kept track of all remaining yoma by-products, Awakened or no, and if anyone knew where Kinatia could be found, it would be her.

He found her running a drugstore in England in 1893 AD and stayed with her for a while to help make youki suppressants for the hanyoma, so they could hide their silver eyes. It was during that time that Flora meandered in to tell them that an earthquake had sunk the Awakened One test site below the waves; now it was lost forever. Though they had been born there, they were happy to see it go; it held too many bad memories to still be called 'home.'

Clare came by with Raki in the early nineteen hundreds; they were happy to see him and soundly cursed the organization's name when they learned of what had befallen him on the continent. Kinatia had not been in contact with anyone for a long time, but they promised to keep an eye out for her and left. In 1950, he headed over to the United States and made several successful investments in the future of society, could live off the profits for easily a hundred years.

* * *

Winter Garden, FL. 2010.

Ryoushi was not quite sure what street he was on, only that there were several shops on either side of the street and an ice cream place down the way called Scoops. He'd wandered the planet in search of his hanyoma friend, only to miss her time and again. Needless to say, he was beginning to believe that Someone Up There had it out for him. With a sigh, he flopped down into one of the chair outside a French bakery and cafe and waited, mentally cataloguing all of the places he'd gone and reviewing all those that were left.

"What can I get you?" He was so distracted that he hadn't even noticed the waitress walk up, and he was about to give her an order for just a cup of coffee when something clicked in the back of his mind. She had a youki, a suppressed one that he could sense, one that he knew all too well. His head snapped up, and his jaw dropped.

"Kinatia?"

The claymore looked up from her pad of paper and gasped sharply. "Ryoushi?" A moment later, they were embracing fiercely, and he kissed her forehead before getting down on one knee.

She said yes.


End file.
